Awake and Alive
by Aotterbot4ever
Summary: As Lexie Grey lies trapped beneath the wreckage, believed dead. She is "saved" by an unusual Family. Since I really hated how 8.24 ended, I decided to incorporate my favorite TV show character with my favorite book/movies. This is the result. Disclaimer: All Characters belong to Shonda Rimes and Stephanie Meyers.
1. Chapter 1: Save Me from the Dark

Awake and Alive

Chapter 1: Save Me from the Dark

The quarter moon caused shadows upon the darkened trees as the wolf ran through the forest with his friends and now family, Carlisle and Edward Cullen. The hunting had been good and the earthy aroma of the nighttime air filled his lungs with a sense of peace, yet his anticipation to visit Renesmee caused power to surge through his body as he ran ahead. Edward chuckled as he read Jacob's thoughts and increased his speed to match. Suddenly the wind shifted and the foreign smell of airline fuel, burning plastic and blood filled their senses, bringing them to a stop. Carlyle turned to face the scent and looked back to his "boys".

"We had better check it out; someone could need our help." He said, and then headed deeper into the forest with Edward and Jacob following.

Within minutes they came upon the wreckage of a downed airplane spread out over a quarter of a mile and quietly made their way to the largest piece which looked to be the cabin. With their enhanced eyesight, they could see several survivors huddled together in the cold, all but one looked asleep.

Edward could hear the bundled woman's erratic thoughts as she shivered in the cold; she wanted to go home, but was filled with grief over someone nicknamed three; then skipped to internally cursing Seattle Grace Mercy Death. And when a scurrying sound came from the forest, her thoughts began to fearfully think about animals eating someone.

Just then, the Wolfs ears twitched at a faint sound and with a soft whine turned away from the survivors to head deeper into the forest. The Cullen's followed and found the wolf sniffing at the pale outstretched hand lying under the wreckage of the plane's tail.

"Carlisle, Jacob says he can hear a heartbeat." Edward whispered.

"Yes", replied Carlisle, "I can hear it now too, but it's very weak." The wolf moved away, transformed back into a young man, and then slid on a pair of shorts Edward handed to him. Carlisle laid down to look under the wreckage and found that the hand belonged to a young beautiful woman, reaching out he touched her face then neck to find her pulse.

"She's dying", he said with the sound of professionally contained grief in his voice, "we need to get this piece of airplane off her before I can fully ascertain the extent of her injuries."

Moving on one side of the tail, Edward and Jacob reached under and easily lifted, then flipped the metal away from the unconscious body. The squealing metal and crash echoed through the forest and startled not only the animals, but the survivor sitting awake at the other crash site.

The scent of her blood was overwhelming, but Edward held his breath to control his blood lust and looked down at her damaged body in horror. He could see that her lower legs were twisted at odd angles and that her left hand looked to be nearly severed from the crash.

"Can you save her? Asked Jacob as he gulped back nausea and watched as Carlisle examined her body.

"No, her body is too badly damaged." He replied sadly. "She has a massive Hemothorax in the pleural cavity of her chest, internal bleeding and crushing injuries to her lower extremities, which have caused compartment syndrome to her legs. She should have died hours ago, when she slipped into a coma from the shock. But I think that the cold weather lowered her core temperature enough that it slowed the blood to her heart and it allowed her to survive longer."

Slowly standing up he turned to face Edward and Jacob. "But she might survive a transformation to one of us." Looking at Jacob, he continued. "I won't change her without your permission, Jacob. This is part of our treaty with your people and even though this woman will die, I will abide with this law."

Jacob cringed at the responsibility of being his people's leader and the harsh reality of what this woman would become if he accepted Carlisle's proposal. But he knew that if something wasn't done soon, she would die and her life would have been wasted.

"Do it." he said harshly and watched as Carlisle acknowledged with a nod and knelt back down to begin injecting his venom into her neck and several key veins, then took his handkerchief to wrap around her left wrist so that it remained attached to her arm. Once satisfied, he gently picked her up and cradled her in his arms.

"We'll need to hurry home, so I can reset some of the damage bones, before they knit back together and get her where we can watch her when she wakes up hungry. Being around her injured friends would be too much for a Newborn's blood lust."

Hearing rustling coming toward them from the direction of the other crash site, Jacob asked. "What about them? How will they explain her missing body?"

Edward just shook his head and said, "They already believe she's dead. If you leave wolf prints and drag marks going into the woods, they will think her body was taken by animals."

Jacob shuddered at the thought and agreed before pulling off his shorts to being his transformation back into a wolf.

"Don't worry, Jacob." Carlisle said as he watched him change. "I've loaded the crash sites coordinate into my phones GPS and once we are far enough away, I'll call the State police so that the rest of the survivors can be rescued. They should be home by tomorrow." Readjusting, the woman in his arms, he continued. "We'll meet you back at the house."

The wolf nodded and watched as they turned and ran into the woods back to Forks. He sighed and began his task of making the site look like animals had taken the woman's body, by walking over the human foot prints and creating drag marks from the blood soaked into the dirt where she had been laying.

So intent on completing his task and worrying about Sam reaction to a new "Cullen" being created, he didn't hear one of the survivors coming through the woods until they crashed into clearing.

Startled, the wolf instinctively swung around and jumped at the intruder with his hackles raised and gave a menacing growl. The Asian woman stopped and squeaked in terror at the large dark mass towering in front of her, its glowing eyes reflecting off the moons weak light. She began to shake and hyperventilate while she waited to be ripped apart by the giant wolf standing in front of her. Realizing how much he had scared her; Jacob lowered his hackles, whined softly and turned to run away into the opposite direction. Her terrified sobs of relief followed him for miles until he found the Cullen's scent and followed their trail home.


	2. Chapter 2: How Did We Get Here?

Chapter 2: How Did We Get Here?

Forty five minutes later, the Cullen home came in sight and they could see their family waiting for their arrival. Not surprised, they knew Alice must have "seen" what was going on and had prepared everyone for their new "sister's" arrival. Esme quickly reached her husband side and gently touched the young woman's scratched and bleeding face.

"Who is she?" she asked with sympathy.

"We're not sure." He replied as he carried her into the house and laid her on an examination table in his office. Turning to face his family, he continued. "She was found in the wreckage of a plane crash in the National Park, outside of Boise. And she wouldn't have survived if Jacob had not given me permission to start the change." Carlisle could see the different range of emotions on each of their faces, since he had not personally created a new vampire in over 70 years. Like Esme, Edward and Rose, this woman was literally Carlisle's new child and the responsibility of controlling a new vampire in this age of camera phones and Utube was staggering. Once she woke they would need to provide constant supervision to keep her away from the people she knew as a human, not only for her safety, but for theirs as well.

"You should all wait down stairs, while I work on her injuries." He said as he walked to his medical cabinet and began pulling out alcohol, a suturing kit and bandages. "Edward has already called in a tip to the police with the planes location so that the remaining survivors can be rescued. You will need to watch the news, to see if we can get more information about who she is and where she's from."

They all nodded and began to file down the stairs until the only one remaining was Edward's wife, Bella. Since she was able to resist the smell of human blood, she moved forward and began to wash the blood off of the young woman's face and body, while Carlisle injected a high dose of morphine and began work on straightening the bones in her legs and reattaching the left hand to her arm. Through the cuts and bruises, Bella could see that she was a very beautiful woman with long dark brown hair.

"Carlisle, I can hear her heart struggling, will she survive this change? She asked.

"I think so, Bella." Carlisle said, as he continued to reattach her hand. "She must have a strong will to survive, otherwise she would have been dead hours ago."

"How old do you think she is?" Bella asked as she gently brushed the leaves and twigs from her hair.

"Hmm, I would guess she's mid to late twenties." He replied.

They quietly continued to work until Bella could no longer hold back the question that was bothering her the most.

"Being changed into a vampire isn't something most people think about as they go about their lives. I mean really…most people think supernatural beings are fiction. How do you think she is going to handle it?"

Carlisle stopped working to consider Bella's question and looked up to respond. "I'm not sure, every person is different, it all depends what type of person they were as a human. Some newborns relish the change and enjoy becoming predators; others despise what they have been turned into and become so destructive that they have to be destroyed. And then there are people, like Rose, who originally hate themselves but eventually come to terms with their new lives and become happy again."

Resuming his work he continues. "You were lucky, Bella. This is the life that you wanted from the moment you fell in love with Edward; you never hesitated or doubted your decision, even though you knew we would eventually have to leave Forks and move on. But for this young woman, this decision was made for her against her will. Her human life has been violently ripped away; her family and friends believe she died in that plane crash and she won't understand why she can no longer go home."

Bella nodded in understanding and grabbed the scissors to cut off the woman's ripped clothes. "We'll need to be her family now." The stopped as she realized what type of clothes she was cutting. "Carlisle, she's wearing medical scrubs. Do you think she's a nurse?"

"I noticed what she was wearing when I pulled her from the wreckage. It's almost 7 AM, the rest of the survivors should be rescued soon and then we should be able to get some sort of information about who she is." Bella nodded again and continued removing the bloody clothes from her body.


	3. Chapter 3: Become So Numb

**Here's a new update for you. Just an FYI, these new Chapers will not always go up this quick. I pre-wrote a few chapters before downloading to FF. Enjoy!**

Chapter 3: Become So Numb

At Boise Memorial Hospital, the ER was in pandemonium as residents and attending surgeons began assessing the survivors' injuries; most were unconscious from shock, blood loss or dehydration. Inside one of the examination rooms a hoarse, frantic cry called out.

"Where is my sister? My sister, Where is Lexie?!Where is my husband and…and….. Christina…. I have to get to my sister and my husband!" as a panicked Meredith struggled against the Doctors trying to help her. Doctors Webber and Bailey ran through the ER to push past a nurse trying to stop them and stepped into the examination room. Seeing Zola in Doctor Bailey's arms, Meredith stopped her struggles to take her daughter in her arms and whispers, "Mommy's here," as a tear rolls down her face.

Further down the hall, Owen anxiously walks into Cristina's examination room and finds her lying on the bed in shock staring blindly up at the ceiling. Sitting down next to her bedside, he takes her limp hand in his and notices that her lips are moving. Getting up he leans closer and listens to her repeated whispers. "She's dead… dead and It ate her….she's dead…dead and It ate her." Softly cupping his wife's face, he turned it so she could see him.

"Cristina, talk to me sweet heart. Who are you talking about, who's dead?" For a second Cristina stopped and with haunted eyes looked at her husband. "Lexie's dead... the monster ate her." She whispered, then her eyes went unfocused and she returned to mumbling to herself. Stunned, Owen thought, "Little Grey's dead?" The Boise Chief had said they found six survivors and for some reason in his panic to reach his wife, he failed to listen to their names. Gently he gave her a kiss on her forehead, then rubbed his fists into his tired eyes as he stood up and walked to the doors; he needed to find his people.

Twenty five minutes later, Bailey and Webber found Owen leaning against a wall in an empty examination room sobbing.

With a heavy heart, Doctor Webber laid his hand on Owen's arm. "What's happened? Is it Cristina? What about the rest of our people"

Owen wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up. "No, Cristina will be okay, she had a dislocated shoulder. Derek's hand is pretty messed up and they are trying to repair it, but they're not sure if he'll ever be able operate again. Marks in surgery with their cardiothoracic surgeron to fix the cardiac tamponade to his heart. Arizona's leg is pretty bad, their Ortho is trying to remove the infection, but they said it might have to be amputated. And Meredith will need to have her leg stitched up and be put on heavy antibiotics for an infection. But, Lexie Grey…."

"What about, Little Grey?" Doctor Bailey interrupted her hand over her heart to stop it from aching.

Sighing, Owen closed his eyes and continued. "Lexie, didn't make it, they said she was crushed under a piece of the plane." Bailey gasped and put her hands to her mouth. "No!" she whispered.

"It gets worse," he shuddered. "Her body is gone….. The rescuers found large tracks showing that her body was dragged off into the forest by a bear or wolf." He watched as the horror filled their faces.

"Sweet Jesus" murmured Webber and covered his face with his hands. Bailey turned white as a sheet and started to shake, then ran to the nearest sink and threw up.

Later that day, inside the Cullen house, Carlisle and Bella headed downstairs to see that a news bulletin was broadcasting a report about an airplane crash.

"They were Doctors being flown from Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital to assist on separating Conjoined twins at Boise Memorial" announced Edward as the pair walked down the stairs to meet with the others. Watching the report, the anchorman, began talking about the downed plane and the doctors that had survived the crash. Suddenly a smiling picture of a beautiful young woman with long dark brown hair and doe -like brown eyes flashed on the television as the newsman reported the tragic death of Doctor Alexandra Grey, a 27 year old surgical resident from Seattle Grace. "

"Not a nurse" Bella mumbled "A young Doctor."

Carlisle moved to Esme's side and put his arm lovingly around her. Looking around to his family, he said. "Okay, now we know who she is and we can be prepared for her reaction when she wakes up."

"Wow, had I known Doctors could be that young and pretty, I would have gotten sick more often." Jacob joked trying to lighten the mood. Everyone chuckled and Emmett's "Oh yeah!" earned him a sharp elbow to the ribs from Rose.


	4. Chapter 4: Bring me to Life

**Okay, I'll be nice again... but another Chapter may not be up for a week or so. Enjoy!**

Chapter 4: Bring me to Life

28 hours later, they could hear Alexandra's heart start to falter as the change completed her transformation. While, Renesmee and Jacob were sent to visit Charlie for their protection; Carlisle, Esme and Jasper made their way up to the examination room to wait for the newborn to awake.

"She's so beautiful," Esme whispered as she looked over to the young woman lying on the examination table. When she first arrived her pelvis and legs looked crushed; her left hand was nearly severed and the rest of her body had been covered in cuts and bruises. Now clothed in a purple sweater and black knit pants, her body was healed and her skin glistened like diamonds in the early morning light. Her hair had turned into a deep chestnut color, which curled down her shoulders.

Suddenly, it was over, as her heart stopped and her red eyes flew open. She lay there nearly motionless for several moments, confused, and a little afraid. 'Where am I' she thought to herself as she stared up at the ceiling, 'hospital?' Looking to her left, she could see a large bay window filled with the different shades of green and brown from the surrounding trees; their rich, earthy scent overwhelmed her senses as she watched an ant walk across a leaf. Startled, she realized that she was watching a bug on a tree that was over 50 feet away from where she was laying. 'That's not possible.' she thought.

'What is going on?' she thought. Pulling her eyes away from the window, she refocused her eyes and took in the intricate details of the room and to her amazement, realized that she could see every single detail on the lightly painted wall including a tiny crack. Then it hit her, she was being watched! Flying off the table, her back hit the wall at the same time as her eyes saw the three strangers standing off to the right by a door.

Before her stood, what could only be described as living statues; so perfectly sculpted that only a renowned artist could have created them. The youngest looked to be in his late teens or early twenties, with a mop of unruly blond hair with intense amber eyes that seemed to reach inside her mind to ease the waves of fear building with each panicked thought. He had a strangely calming effect.

Next to him stood a beautiful woman in her late 30's, with long dark brown hair, the same Amber eyes, and a warm motherly smile that reflected a sincere sadness, that implied that she knew something about Lexie, that would cause her pain.

Finally, her gaze fell upon possibly one of the best looking man that she had ever seen. He was fairly tall, with slicked back light blond hair and a serious but comforting fatherly gaze that seemed to, in its own way, calmed her just as a much as the presence of the younger man did.

"Where am I? Who are you? Lexie demanded, and then stuttered. "Wait….wh..where's the plane? And Meredith, Oh god, where's my sister?!"

"Alexandra, you need to remain calm." The blond man said as he remained perfectly still, so not to startle her more.

"How do you know my name?" she demanded panicking as her voice began to rise. "What's going on? How did I get here?"

Holding his palm up at waist level in a non-threatening gesture. "Please, keep calm and I will explain everything."

Lexie pressed her body more firmly against the wall, as if she wished to phase through it in order to escape the answers she wanted to desperately hear.

"Alexandra… can you tell me what was your last memory before you woke up?" he asked softly.

"Lexie", she whispered.

"I'm sorry, what?" came his confused reply.

"My name…is Lexie… I don't go by Alexandra."

Giving her a gentle smile, he prodded again. "Oh, okay... Lexie, what do you remember?"

Licking her lips, she began to sort through her photographic memory until the pieces began to come together like a puzzle. "I'm a Surgical Resident…. I was asked to go help on a surgery for conjoined twins, with several Attending Doctors, including my Brother–in-law, Derek and my sister, Meredith. We were flying." She hesitated, and then started again. "We were flying to Boise Memorial Hospital, then something happened and the plane began to shake…..it dropped and I remember the lights going out….and everyone screaming. I could hear metal screeching and I was thrown forward against the chair in front of me…. Then a loud ripping sound as the tail was torn off and the suction pulled me out with it. I must have been knocked unconscious because the next thing I remember is waking up to cough out the blood in my mouth. I couldn't move; I was trapped under a piece of the plane… everything hurt, I couldn't breathe….my pelvis and legs were crushed." Realizing what she had just said, she looked down at her now undamaged legs in surprise, and then looked at her left hand lying flat against the wall. Lifting it up in front of her face, she watched in fascination as it twisted at the wrist and her fingers curled into a fist. "My… My… hand…I….I couldn't feel my left hand", she stuttered. "I didn't think it was there." Putting her hand down, she looked back up to see the strangers looking at her with compassion in their eyes.

"I could hear screaming, so I knew someone was alive, but I couldn't get enough air in my lungs to yell for help. So I began to hit the plane with a piece of metal and then they found me…. Mark and Cristina found me, but it was too heavy and they couldn't pull me out. My chest hurt so badly and it was getting harder to breathe. Mark lay down and held my hand….." she closed her eyes and pictured Marks tortured face as he begged her to live and told her he loved her… his face began to darken when she heard his last words to her, "That they were meant to be." Her eyes popped open to look at the people watching her.

"Oh my God…. I died!" she whispered and reached up to put a hand over her heart. She couldn't feel anything. "No, wait…. This… this isn't possible….I'm standing here…. I'm talking!" she says in a panic.


	5. Chapter 5: Don't know what's real or not

**I know I said a week, but this chapter was done... so what the heck. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 5: Don't know what's real or not

Suddenly, the panic ebbed away as a wave of peace calmed her mind like a drug; she watched in fascination as the blond man suddenly appeared by her side and gently took her by the arm to guide her back to the bed to sit down. Pulling up a chair, he sat down and began.

"Lexie, I'll explain what's going on, but first let me introduce myself. My name is Carlisle Cullen; I'm a Doctor at Forks Regional Hospital and behind me is my lovely wife Esme and one of my sons, Jasper." Lexie followed his gaze and watched as Esme smiled and Jasper just nodded his head in greeting. "You'll meet the rest of my family later." Returning her eyes back to his face she watched as Carlisle struggled to find the right words to explain her new life.

"I know that being a Doctor, your life revolves around science and facts. So I'm going to assume that you don't believe in the supernatural, like ghosts, werewolves and vampires, is that correct?"

"Umm… I guess so… I mean… I've read fictional books and seen movies. I mean tales about vampires started because of a Romanian prince that used to impale his victims and drink their blood as a way to glorify his victories. But everyone knows they're not real" She giggles nervously while looking confused.

"Actually, we are. But we call ourselves Immortals; the name vampire was created by a human. As an Immortal, we are incredibly fast, strong and of course live on blood. " He smiled sadly. "As for werewolves… well I think they are actually shape shifters, but a whole tribe lives about 10 miles away. We're not friends, but we have a truce with them to keep the peace."

Lexie's confused expression, turned into amusement and she began to laugh. "Oh! Come on…. Vampires… Werewolves…. That's just crazy!" The look she was giving Esme and Jasper begged them to start laughing at the joke, but their serious expressions don't change. She abruptly stopped laughing and began to get angry. "Okay.. Okay so you believe that you are vampires. Sorry Immortals, but what does this have to do with me? You are not explaining what happened and how I got here. Just tell me!"

Carlisle gave her a gentle look and began. "My sons and I were on our way home from hunting, a few nights ago when we came upon a plane crash and found you trapped underneath a piece of the wreckage. You were barely alive and we freed you in the hopes of getting you help; but I quickly ascertained that you would not survive the trip to the hospital since the damage to your body was catastrophic. That only left us with two choices; let you die as a human, which would have been a great loss or begin the process to change you into an immortal." He stops and softly touches her leg. "I think you can guess which one I chose."

Lexie stared at Carlisle dumbfounded for a few moments. "Seriously! This is the story you're going with, that you've turned me into a blood sucking vampire! How gullible do you think I am? I want the truth!"

Again he looked at her with sympathy, "Think about it, you're a Doctor. Look at your left hand, it was nearly severed at the wrist, but there is no nerve damage or scarring; it's perfect. And your pelvis and legs were crushed, in fact when we removed the wreckage they were so swollen and black from compartment syndrome that you probably would have been a double amputee." Stopping he pulled out his cell phone and handed it to her. "Look at the date, Doctor Grey; it's only been 3 or 4 days since the plane crashed. So you tell me how it is possible for you to be sitting here talking to me; fully healed instead of in an ICU or a morgue?"

She stared down at the phone in her hands, and then closed her eyes trying to come up with different scenarios to explain how her injuries could have healed so quickly. 'Maybe the phone has been altered and I've been in a coma for months.' She thought hopefully. But then her photographic memory kicked in and replayed every painful detail of the crash including her traumatic injuries. 'He's right,' she realized, 'there was no way I could have survived.' Hearing a crunching sound, she opened her eyes and looked down in shock to the mangled phone in her clenched hand. Embarrassed, she returned Carlisle's mangled phone back to him and mumbled, "Sorry."

"That's okay, we go through a lot of phones" he said smiling. Jasper snickered in the background and piped in, with his soft southern accent, "Yeah, one almost every month. We're keeping the phone manufacturer in business."

Looking to the Cullen's, she shuddered slightly. "So, you're saying I'm a Vampire. No wait, an Immortal?" she said still resistant to the truth.

"Yes, that's correct, dear." Esme said as she walks over to the closet and pulls out a full length mirror. Then in a flash she is standing over Lexie to pull her off the bed toward the mirror.

'Wait, no…..I don't …. I can't…" Lexie stutters as she closes her eyes and turns away from the mirror.

Standing face to face, with the girl, Esme takes her hands. "Lexie, look at me." She softly demands, then smiles as Lexie opens her eyes. "You are very beautiful young woman, there's nothing to be afraid of." Nodding at the reassurance, Lexie slowly turns toward the mirror and is shocked to see the stunning woman looking back at her. Her long dark hair, which she had lately been wearing straight with bangs, was now a deep glossy brown with reddish highlights that curled gently around her shoulders. Her skin, which had always been pale, was now translucent like a porcelain doll. She brought her hand up to touch her face, then lips, which were fuller, just to verify that it was real. She smiled and was surprised at her reflection showing perfectly straight teeth as if she had been to an orthodontist. But it was her eyes that shocked her the most; they were no longer dark brown or even Amber color, like the Cullen's. Hers were dark red like blood and seemed to reflect some kind of primal energy; she looked like a demon….no she realized, like an Immortal. She felt a burning in her throat as a picture of the warm liquid flitted across her mind and realized she was hungry. Stiffening in horror, she suddenly remembered that her sister, Meredith and perhaps a few of the others had open injuries from the crash. She quickly turned around to face Carlisle and Esme.

"Blood…. You drink blood to survive." She said ignoring the burning in her throat as she started to panic. "Vampires kill humans to drink their blood…Oh my God! My sister and the rest of the survivors, did you kill them?!" Feeling a wave of calm hit her, her panic subsided, 'Why does that keep happening', she thought.

Reaching out, Esme put a comforting hand on Lexie's arm. "Many Immortals would have fed and perhaps killed everyone from your group, but we consider ourselves 'vegetarians'. She said never losing her warm smile. "We do drink blood, but we don't need to feed on humans to live, animals work just fine."

"So my friends?" she asks.

"Are alive and in the hospital." Carlisle answers and watches Lexie covers her face with her hands then wilts a little in relief. "We called in an anonymous tip to the State Police; they were rescued a few hours after we brought you here." Looking back up to Carlisle, she gives him a grateful smile and whispers "Thank you. Her relief was short lived as she began to wonder if Meredith had found Derek and if he was okay, the last thing she remembered was hearing her calling for him out in the woods. What about Arizona, how badly was she hurt? She couldn't recall seeing her, while trapped under the wreckage… was she alive? Then her racing thoughts stopped, when she pictured Mark begging her to live; that he loved her… Oh God, he thinks I'm dead!

"I need to leave…. I need to find him. He has to know that I'm okay." She whispered out loud and started to walk toward the door, but stopped short in surprise when she realized Jasper was in her way. "Please, Get out of my way."

"I'm sorry, I can't let you leave, it's too dangerous." He firmly replied, blocking her way. Shocked, she turned around to find another exit only to see that Carlisle and Esme had come up behind her.

"I need to go home… Please, my family… I need to find them…." She begged, realizing they were blocking her escape.

"Lexie, you need to listen to me. You're a newborn Immortal that cannot control the blood lust; it's just too dangerous for you to be around any humans right now, especially your friends and family. Even now I'm sure you can feel your body is craving blood, to complete the transformation." Carlisle said and watched as she brought her hand up to her throat, he knew the urge to feed was getting stronger. "Do you really want risk killing someone you love because you cannot control the bloodlust? Could you live with that guilt?"

Even though, Lexie had seen the changes to her body and knew it was impossible for her body to heal so quickly after being in a plane crash, she was still refusing to believe the Cullen's declaration that she was now a vampire. But she was so hungry and her throat ached with a primal thirst that became almost unbearable every time he spoke of blood.

Sensing that her thoughts had shifted away from her family as the blood lust grew; he reached over and took her hand to pull her over to the French doors that opened onto a second story terrace.

"You need to feed."


	6. Chapter 6: Blood to Run

**Thanks for the great reviews! I'll try to get another chapter out soon. **

* * *

Chapter 6: Blood to Run

Like a child, Lexie followed Carlisle out onto the terrace and gasped as the sun hit his face; making his skin sparkle like diamonds, then turned to watch Esme and Jasper's skin do the same as they came out of the room. Reaching down, she pushed the sleeve of her sweater up her arm and watched in amazement as it too sparkled in the sun. Looking up at Jasper's chuckle, she watched as he walked over to put his hands on the railing and vaulted over it to land on the first floor. Startled she ran forward expecting to see him lying injured on the ground but instead looked down to see him staring up at her with a big smile.

"Oh, that's nothing! Wait until you see what we can do once we're in the forest." Then watched as Esme did the same and landed gracefully on the ground; confused Lexie stepped away from the railing and looked over to Carlisle. He once again took her hand and pulled her toward the railing.

"Come on, it's easier than you think," then helped Lexie swing her legs over until they both sat on top of the terrace railing, "We'll go together on 3, okay?" She nodded yes and felt his hand tighten around hers as he counted. "1… 2… 3!" Then closed her eyes and felt a rush of air as the ground quickly came closer. Realizing it was over she opened her eyes and smiled at the Cullen's. Jasper just shook his head and teased. "Come on, Lexie, let's see if you can keep up!" then took off through the forest, like a Cheetah. Shaking her head in disbelief, she began to chase after him with Carlisle and Esme following close by. The trees become blurs out of the corner of her eyes as she fixated on Jasper running several miles ahead of her until she pushed harder to close the difference. Now neck and neck, Lexie turned her head slightly to see Jasper's surprised expression, as if he never expected her to catch up to him. She smiled and returned her gaze to look ahead, but her smile disappeared when she realized that they were quickly headed for a cliff and would have to stop. Slowing down, she watched in surprise as Jasper continued to run ahead and then as if he was Superman take a flying leap until he landed on the other side.

"Holy Crap." She said out loud with her mouth hanging open. Then without warning Carlisle and Esme ran past and did the exact same thing, until they were standing next to Jasper. She could hear Jasper laughing as he yelled. "Come on Lexie! Don't be a chicken! Jump!" She shook her head in disbelief, 'there is no way a human could have made that leap,' she thought backing away from the cliff's edge.

"Lexie, you are an Immortal now, you can do this!" called Carlisle from the other side. "Back up to get a running start and try again!" She looked over to Carlisle and nodded in understanding, then ran back into the forest until she was 200 feet away from the cliff's edge. Hesitating, she anxiously rubbed her hands against her pant legs, then thought. "Oh what the hell… I've already died once." Turning quickly around she began pumping her legs in a fast sprint until the edge of the cliff came in sight, then pushed off expecting to fall to her death. But instead she kept on going over the rushing water far below until she landed gracefully a few yards away from the Cullen's.

Exhilarated, she laughed out loud. "Oh my God, that was incredible!"

Carlisle and Esme chuckled at her childlike exuberance, while Jasper smirked and said, "Come on kid, you've got a lot more to learn."

"Hey! I'm not a kid…I'm older than you!" she said feeling insulted. Jasper just smirked again and said, "Lexie, I was born before the Civil War started; trust me you're just a kid." He chuckled at her surprised expression, then he took her by the hand to pull her deeper into the forest. Stopping a few miles later, he dropped her hand and stood behind her, while Carlisle and Esme hung back.

"Now, I want you to stop thinking, close your eyes and listen to the forest around you. Tell me what you hear."

Closing her eyes, the forest seemed to explode around her as the sounds intensified. Deep inside an underground burrow, she could hear a rabbit creating a nest, it's heart beating a hundred times a minute. Above in the trees, she could hear squirrels chatter excitedly as they chased each other around the branches and below her feet, she could hear the clicking of bugs as they scurried across the ground.

"I hear everything." Lexie whispered in awe. "The wind whistling through the leaves, animals in the underbrush, birds chirping from their nests…. I can even hear their hearts beating." Jasper put his hands on her shoulders as he came up behind her.

"Good, now listen harder for a larger animal, with a louder slower heartbeat." He whispered softly in her ear.

Nodding, she closed out the sounds of the smaller animals, until suddenly she heard the rustling of something large moving several miles away through the trees. Her red eyes flew open and instinct took over as she began to hunt her prey; within seconds a large male Elk stood before her. Lunging, she wrapped her arms around its neck to pull it to the ground, and then clamped her mouth over its jugular. She closed her eyes in pleasure as the warm rush of blood surged down her throat, helping to ease her burning thirst, until the animal stopped its struggle. Standing up, Lexie looked down at the lifeless body and felt slightly horrified at what she had just done, yet licked the remaining blood from her lips. She felt full, but strangely unsatisfied as if her body had craved steak but she had eaten a hamburger instead. Turning away from the carcass she made her way back through the forest to find the Cullen family.

"You did very well, Lexie." Carlisle said smiling proudly to his new daughter.

"Does it always taste like that?" she asked.

"Like what?" He asks, but already knows her question.

"I don't know, like something is missing?" Jasper chuckled and replied. "Your body naturally craves human blood, so the animal blood is almost like eating Tofu. You'll get used to it in time."

The burning in her throat flared up again at the thought of human blood, but she forced the craving into the back of her mind. She was a Surgeon for Christ sake! Being around blood was an everyday occurrence and there was no way she was going to let this…whatever… bloodlust rule her life… or death. 'Oh God!' She thought, 'this is really happening to me… I'm a vampire!"

"Lexie" Carlisle said interrupting her internal panic attack. "I'm sure you have more questions, so I'd like to head back to the house and introduce you to the rest of the family, is that okay?" She nodded in agreement and watched the Cullen's head back through the forest.

"Oh, happy day, time to meet the vampire family." She mumbled sarcastically to herself then ran to catch up.


	7. Chapter 7: Shatter All Around

**Here's another Chapter. Hope you Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 7: Shatter All Around

Later that afternoon, Doctors Hunt and Webber arrived at the crash site to meet up with the shift leader, from the search and rescue team, with the hope that Little Grey's body had been found to take home. Doctor Bailey had remained behind with Zola and was working with Boise's hospital administrator to coordinate transferring their injured Doctors back to Seattle Grace. Arizona and Derek had woken up from the emergency surgeries but were going to need additional work done to repair the damage created from the crash. Mark on the other hand had yet to regain consciousness and they were worried that complications from his "in the field" procedure to fix the Cardiac Tamponade might have caused an infection, so that wanted to get him home to monitor him better. Christina was still catatonic from the shock and would probably need psychiatric help. And Meredith was doing better, especially with Zola around, but she had remembered that Lexie's body had not been with them when they had been rescued and kept asking about her. Owen had decided to hold off from telling her about Little Greys fate until he spoke with the search party.

Exiting the helicopter, the pair made their way through the small meadow on the outskirts of the crash to shake hands with the shift leader, Al Roberts. They introduced themselves and began to walk toward the wreckage until they got to the tail end of the plane which lay deeper into the forest. Once there the three men stood in a semi-circle looking down at the blood soaked ground that had been taped off by the FAA.

"Have you had any luck in recovering Doctor Grey's body?" Hunt asked.

"Not yet." Al said sadly. "As you can see we are doing a grid search, up to half mile around the crash site, with any luck we should find something soon. Are you sure she was dead?"

"Well according to the survivors, she died about an hour after they found her trapped under the wreckage, why?" asked Hunt.

"Well, it's just that the blood looks like it hadn't congealed before her body had been taken, which means that she may have been alive. We've had similar instances when we find the remains of hikers that had been alive before being attacked and killed by a cougar or wolves."

"Oh Lord." Groaned Hunt as he ran his hand through his hair, "Do you think Doctor Grey could still be alive?"

"Well if she was, she isn't now." Al said as he moved away from the taped off area to look at several large prints on the ground. "Look at the size of these prints; according to our zoologist they appear to be made by a Wolf, but the size and depth of the print makes this animal to almost be as big as a bear. We've never seen a wolf of this size and the fact that it was strong enough to move the wreckage away to get access to her whole body, instead of just ripping off the accessible limbs, means that there might not be much left to recover."

Turning back to the Doctors, Al noticed that Doctor Webber had turned slightly green and stopped to apologize, "Oh Jeez, I'm sorry to go like that… I just figured with you guys being doctors and all that you would be able to handle the truth about what we might find."

"Normally I can. I mean some of the things we've seen come through the ER, would just stun you." Richard Webber said as he fought back the nausea. "But this is one of our people you are talking about. Doctor Alexandra Grey was a beautiful young woman, both inside and out. She had a promising surgical career with family and friends that loved her. Yet you talk about her like she was a piece of meat! ... How do you think we are going to react with this kind of news! It's just…. wrong!" Moving a few feet away from Owen Hunt and Al Roberts, he looked at the remains of the plane and shook his head.

"I just can't believe this is happening." He hesitated. "It's bad enough, they thought she had died, but to have to go back and tell them… No… tell Meredith that she can't bury her sister's body because some animal dragged it off and…. and… God knows what…!" Looking back to Owen with tears in his eyes, he continued. "They had finally gotten close, like sisters are supposed to be… I just don't know if Meredith can survive this… I just don't know…..how we tell her."

Owen walked over to Richard and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but didn't speak; there were just no comforting words he could say about this tragedy.

Uncomfortable with the whole conversation, the shift leader decided it was time to go.

"Look, I meant no disrespect to Doctor Grey. I was just trying to explain the situation and well, I wasn't thinking about how awful this would be for you or the remaining survivors. I'm really sorry for your loss." Glancing down to his watch, he continued. "I think you both better head back before it gets dark. Please be assured we are going to continue searching for her remains until the FAA has collected all of the wreckage. We'll let you know if we find her." Nodding, the Doctors made their way back to the helicopter and watched the crash site disappear as it flew away. "We can't tell them that she might have been alive before…." Doctor Webber's voice trailed off. Hunt gave his head a stiff nod in agreement. "We'll keep that information between us."

Half an hour later, they arrived back to Boise Memorial and made their way down to meet up with Miranda Bailey outside Derek Shepherds room.

"Well, what did you find out? Did they find her yet?" she nervously asked, but could tell by the look in their eyes that it wasn't good news.

"No, they still haven't found her body and if they do, it sounds like there won't be much left." Hunt started. "They're going to keep searching until all of the wreckage has been recovered by the FAA. Have you scheduled the flight for our return to Seattle?"

"Oh, that sweet girl," she said sadly, then focused at the task at hand. "Yes they are going to put us on a Cargo plane, so that way our people can be sedated while strapped to the gurneys. It's scheduled to leave at 8 am tomorrow morning. I've already called Doctor Kepner to have everyone at Seattle Grace prepared for our arrival." Looking through the glass partition, she watched Meredith talking to Derek while holding his good hand. She still couldn't believe that tragedy had once again struck her former intern; she was like a lightning rod for pain.

"Miranda, we have to tell Meredith and Derek about Lexie." Richard said as he joined her gaze to watch the couple in the room. Miranda looked down and closed her eyes dreading what they had to do next, sighing she nodded yes, and then followed them into the room. Out in the hallway, all is still for a moment until hysterical screams crying the name "Lexie!" over and over bounce off the walls.


	8. Chapter 8: Clouding up my Mind

**Hi All! Just and FYI, this story is basically about how Lexie handles her new life... As for Mark's fate... Well you'll just have to find out in a few more chapters. (insert evil laugh ;)**

* * *

Chapter 8: Clouding up my Mind

Later that evening, Lexie Grey stood leaning against the picture window of her bedroom looking out into the darkened forest. Her photographic memory replaying the day's events from the moment she awoke to meeting the rest of the Cullen family, which surprisingly hadn't been too bad. They were all very nice, which was a really weird thing to imagine now that she knew they were all vampires. 'Like me.' She thought as the reality set in.

It was late afternoon, when the trio walked into the family room. Jasper had made his way over to kiss the lips of a cute pixie like girl with black spikey hair and a friendly smile. She looked up to him in adoration, and then moved away from him until she was standing in front of her.

"Welcome to the family, Alexandra!" She announced happily while pulling her into a hug. "My name is Alice." Lexie gave her an awkward hug back.

"Umm… thanks? Please call me Lexie."

"Oh okay, that's cute… Lexie it is." She giggled and practically danced back into Jasper's waiting arms. Lexie looked over to Carlisle nervously; he chuckled and began to introduce the rest of his family.

"Okay, so you've met Jasper and Alice. Next to them from left to right are Emmett, Rosalie, Edward and his wife, Bella."

Lexie squeaked in surprise, when Emmett came rushing toward her and lifted her off her feet to give her a crushing hug. "What's up, Doc!" he said giving her a goofy smile.

"Emmett, put her down, your scaring her!" huffed Rosalie at the tall, muscular man.

"Oops, sorry." He said sheepishly putting her back on the ground, then moved back to stand next to Rosalie. Moving away from Emmett; Rosalie, who looked like a beauty queen, with her long blond hair walked gracefully up to Lexie to shake her hand.

"Welcome to our odd little family." She offered an understanding smile, knowing from personal experience that next few months or even years were going to be hard on the newborn as she learned to adapt to her new life. "If you ever need to talk or whatever, just... You know come find me."

"Umm… sure, thanks." Lexie replied as she released Rosalie's hand and watched her return back to Emmett.

The last couple to come forward looked too young to be husband and wife, but as she was quickly discovering, ages were really deceiving in this family. Both were beautiful, with brown hair and soft smiles.

Bella moved away from Edward and gave her a friendly hug. "Hi Lexie, It's nice to finally meet you."

Edward on the other hand had been 'listening' to his new sister's thoughts and could tell that she was becoming very uncomfortable with all of the attention, so when he moved up next to Bella, he offered her a polite hand shake.

"It's very nice to meet you, Lexie and I hope in time you'll get more comfortable calling us family." She returned his handshake and whispered "Thank you." Out of all of the Cullen clan, Edward seemed to be the only one to understand that she felt like an outsider and wasn't ready to be accepted into this new family.

Walking over, Carlisle put his arm around her waist and guided her to a couch. "Now that the introductions are over, let's sit down to discuss what's going to happen over the next few months as you begin to adapt to this new life and the rules you will have to follow until you can control your bloodlust around humans."

Several hours later, Lexie's brain felt overloaded, just like a few weeks ago, when Alex and the rest of the Residents had wanted her to memorize all of the old case files, so that she could test them before their boards. But instead of surgical information, she now had knowledge of a hidden supernatural subculture that had been in existence for centuries.

Carlisle had first began by telling her about the other members of the Cullen family she had yet to meet; Reneesme, Edward and Bella's half-human, half-vampire daughter and Jacob Black, one of the leaders of the Quileute Tribe that had the ability to turn into vampire killing wolves. He explained that they were staying in Jacob's village for a few days until she had accepted her new life and the rules necessary to protect themselves and others; per their treaty with the Quileute Tribe.

Then Carlisle went into the history their people, including the rules created by the Immortal leaders known as the Volturi and the punishments handed out to transgressors, if they are not followed. It was during this part that she found out about the Voluri's recent visit to eradicate the Cullen family, due to them believing Reneesmee to be a vampire child. Edward had cut in and angrily said that was just an excuse for Aro to use in order to acquire vampires with gifts. Carlisle had given Edward a stern look, then interrupted and said that they would explain about the gifts later once Lexie was comfortable being an immortal. He continued by saying that with the help of the Quileute Wolves and several friends they proved to the Volturi that no laws had been broken and that Reneesmee was not a danger to the Immortal race. They left, but Carlisle went on to say that they would not be announcing Lexie's change to the Volturi, since they didn't want them to feel threatened by the Cullen's increasing numbers.

The last bit of information was the hardest to handle, especially when they showed the news broadcasts announcing her death.

"Doctor Alexandra Caroline Grey is dead." Carlisle began bluntly. "She was killed in that plane crash and you cannot go back to being her. To do so would not only put your human family at risk, but us as well. Humans cannot find out that we truly exist and as technology has spread, it has gotten harder to hide in plain sight, which is why we move to different cities or countries every 5 to 6 years." Carlisle stopped and took her hands in his, "We don't age, Lexie. You will always look the same whether it's 10, 50 or even 100 years from now; but the rest of your family and friends will eventually grow old and die. It's better for everyone, if the ties to your past are broken now."

She had sat in stunned silence until Alice, Bella and Rosalie pulled her off the couch and led her to a bedroom. Once there, Alice proceeded to show her the clothes they had bought in her size and began to talk about going shopping, once she could handle being around humans again. A few minutes later, the trio left and Lexie closed her eyes at the silence, happy to finally be alone. Opening them, she looked around her new room and noticed a laptop sitting on a shelf. Pulling it down she sat down on the bed and began searching the web for any information about the plane crash and the condition of the survivors. Not finding much, she shut it down, and then considered trying to find a phone to call the hospital. But she knew that getting any information from the hospital staff would be impossible, unless she came forward as a family member.

'This sucks!' she thought and got up to walk over to the window to look out, then pushed away and started pacing. She understood the reasons why the Cullen's wanted her to stay away from the people who knew her, but she needed to know that everyone was okay.

Downstairs Edward looked over to his parents and said, "We'll need to watch her, she's thinking about leaving." Carlisle nodded, and then looked toward the ceiling as he heard her start to pace. Feeling a hand on his arm he looked toward his wife.

"Carlisle, she's just worried about the others from the crash. She might become more settled if she finds out they're alright."

Putting a hand over hers, "Your right, sweetheart, she's not a prisoner. I'll use my contacts at the hospital to get some information about her companions and hopefully it will keep her calm enough to stay put."


	9. Chapter 9: Waiting for the Rain to fall

**Enjoy the new chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Waiting for the Rain to fall

Three days after her rebirth, she was becoming frustrated that her first few escape attempts had been thwarted by the members of her new family; they had the uncanny ability to show up unexpectedly as she was trying to leave. Standing at the back door Lexie was contemplating another attempt, when Carlisle pulled her into his office. Sitting down next to her, he had pulled out several files from his brief case and handed them to her for review.

"What's this?" she asked while opening the file. "Oh." Lexie whispered, realizing she was looking at a detailed medical history from Boise Memorial Hospital for Meredith Grey.

"I'm sorry, it took longer than expected to get copies." he said, then got up and went to the door to leave. "You should know that they've all been transferred back to Seattle Grace Mercy West. There is nothing you can do for them anymore and I hope this information will help you to accept your new life."

She nodded and watched him leave, and then began reading through the files one by one, until they were burned into her memory. She was relieved to see that both Meredith and Christina had walked away with only minor injuries and although Derek's hand had been severely damaged, he was expected to recover. Arizona and Mark's injuries were a shock. She vaguely remembered Christina saying that Arizona's leg had been broken, but read that it had been a compound fracture that had torn through her leg muscles and caused an infection so bad that it might need to be amputated. As for Mark, her last memory was of him holding her hand until she passed out; she thought he had been okay. But according to the files, he had almost died from a Cardiac Tamponade at the crash site and had only been saved by Meredith doing a primitive Pericardiocentesiswith a tube from a spray bottle; his prognosis was unknown until he woke up.

Leaving the files on the chair, she numbly ignored the concern looks from Bella, Jasper and Carlisle to make her way outside and turned her face up to the falling rain. For so long she had tried to fight her feelings for Mark, but she knew now that he was her soul mate and the love of her life. She should be by his side and hated this feeling of helplessness! Without thinking she began to blindly punch at a nearby boulder, causing chunks of stone to fly around until there was nothing left but rubble at her feet. Jasper sensing Lexie's pain came up from behind to wrap his arms around her small frame in a tight hug until her body relaxed enough so that he was able to gently pick her up and carry her to the bedroom. Once there, Bella helped her into dry clothes, and then sat on the bed in silence to towel dry her hair. Moments later, Lexie began to talk about her human life as a Doctor; family; friends; and lastly, the love of her life, Mark Sloan.

"It's funny in a way, how things have worked out for us. It's been three years since we broke up and I still couldn't get over him, even though I tried by jumping into other relationships. He was the glue that kept me together and without him, I felt broken." She chuckles sadly. "A few days before we got on that plane; I couldn't hold it in anymore and blind-sided him with my declarations of love. He was so shocked that he just stood there with his mouth hanging open until his girlfriend showed up and I ran back to my car." Turning around to face Bella, she continued.

"Then the crash happened and while I was lying trapped under that plane, he was like a madman. Trying to lift the wreckage off me; trying to save me, until he finally realized I was going to die. So he lay down next to me to hold my hand and began to beg me to live for our future…. Because he loved me and we were meant to be." Lexie stopped and closed her eyes as the pain washed over her.

"We were stupid… all that time wasted… and now he's lying in that hospital and I can't be there for him! I can't tell him that I'm okay and that I know he loves me too."

Bella took Lexie's hands in hers. "I wish I could tell you to screw the rules and follow your heart, but I can't. You're not strong enough to be around humans and if something were to happen, even if it was an accident, it would haunt you."

She smiled sadly at Bella. "Wow, are you like 50 years old or something, because you sounded way to mature to be a teenager?"

"No, I'm actually only 20 years old," she giggled, "I was just turned a year ago after nearly dying giving birth to my daughter. Carlisle is always teasing me about having an old soul."

"Okay, well it's nice to know I'm actually older than one person in this family. It's still freaking me out that most of the "kids" are actually old enough to be my great grandparents." She joked affectionately with her new little sister, until thoughts of Mark once again came forward.

"Hey, here's a thought," Bella said, interrupting Lexie's depressing musings. "I'll have someone keep an eye on Doctor Sloan's condition, while you try to get control of the blood lust thing. So if something comes up and we need to sneak out of here for a quick visit to Seattle, we won't need to worry about you ripping someone's throat out."

"Really, you would do that for me?" She asked in surprise.

"Lexie, you're not a prisoner you know. We just don't want you to do something that you'll regret. So become comfortable with who and what you are, and then later you can go check on your family. Oh and just to clarify that does not mean you can physically knock on the door and say…. "I'm back!"

"No, I knew that. It's just everyone made it seem like it would take me forever to get control over wanting human blood." Lexie answered becoming excited at the thought.

"Well, I believe that if you want something bad enough, it will help you get over the obstacles faster. Take me for example, I knew before I was turned that the lust of human blood would be overwhelming and in newborns, it's expected, but I was determined not to let it control me and I blocked it." Rising from the bed, Bella made her way toward the door, but stopped and looked back at Lexie.

"You know, I don't think you're going have any problems with the human thing. After all, you're a surgeon; being around their blood is second nature to you." With that said Bella walked out and closed the door behind her.

'Bella's right.' She thought, sitting up straighter with strength of purpose. 'I've had arteries blow until my clothes are soaked red and patients vomit blood on my shoes, it never once stopped me from doing my job to save lives. I can beat this!'

For the first time since waking up as an Immortal, Doctor Lexie Grey had hope and she finally smiled.


	10. Chapter 10: Trapped inside these walls

**Due to some suggestive content, the rating of this story is now Teen. I also want to acknowledge my brilliant son for helping me out with the next two chapters. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 10: Trapped inside these walls

Two weeks later, the Cullen's began to lessen their vigilant watch over Lexie after seeing how well she controlled herself around Reneesme, Jacob and his pack members. Today, she was sitting next to Jacob in a small meadow surrounded with spring-time wildflowers, laughing as she watched Reneesme, who looked about ten, chase bugs. Jacob smiles at the sound; since it was something the sad newborn rarely did and looked over to see her bright smile. He still could not believe that she had gone from a bloody mangled body to a beautiful young woman, who he found to have a kind and gentle spirit.

"Hey, Lex?" he asks, and then watches her pull her gaze from the giggling child to look over to him.

"Yes, Jacob?"

"Are you doing okay? I …. I mean is it getting easier to accept what you are now?" He asks anxiously while pulling apart a flower.

Lexie watched as the different emotions crossed his face and knew that his approval to allow her transformation had been had been as life altering to him as it was to her. Being a surgeon that dealt with life or death decisions every day she knew that Jacob had showed a great deal of maturity for someone his age. Putting her hand on his arm, he looked startled at her touch.

"Jacob, All I can tell you is that I'm taking this whole alternative lifestyle one day at a time. But I do understand and accept that this change was necessary for me to continue to exist." She returns her gaze to the laughing girl running along the edge of the forest and smiles before continuing.

"You made the right decision, Jacob and one day I will thank you for my new life, but right now all I can think about are the people I've left behind… I can't go home and it hurts."

Jacob swallowed the lump in his throat, trying to think of something comforting to say and watched as she stood up to dust off her jeans.

"On a less serious note," she said trying to lighten the mood. "I cannot even begin to tell you how bored I've been for the last two weeks. I'm a Doctor that lived and breathed 16 hour surgeries to save lives, now I'm sitting around looking at trees; I'm starting to go a little crazy!" Jacob laughed then jumped up and called out for Reneesme to follow them home.

The trio had just begun walking back to the Cullen home, when the wind shifted and the unmistakable scent of human blood overwhelmed Lexie's control on her blood lust. In a split second, her vampire instinct had taken over and she began running toward the sweet smell.

"Lexie? " Jacob called after the newborn, and then caught the scent that had gained her attention. "Oh crap!" He knew he needed to stop her before she did something she would regret, but could not leave Reneesme on her own. "Come on, we need to get your Dad!" he said to the little girl and transformed into a wolf so she could jump on his back. Running at full speed he quickly reached the Cullen home and began to "yell" for Edward in his mind until he came out of the house. Edward nodded in understanding.

"Tell Carlisle what's going on, I'll try to catch up to her!" then sprinted into the woods to try and stop her from making a devastating mistake.

Forty miles in the opposite direction, the scent she followed erased all rational thoughts of why she needed to stop and go back to the Cullen home. All she could feel was an overwhelming need to feed and the closer she got to the source, the faster she ran. Suddenly Lexie was standing outside of an old abandoned cabin; the smell of fresh human blood lay just beyond the wooden barrier and it was so strong that she is unable to stop herself from crashing through the door.

Entering the room, her eyes quickly adjusted to the dimly lit interior looking for the source of blood that drawn her here and landed on a shocking sight against the far wall. Ten feet away on the floor, sat a terrified teenage girl, who looked about 14 or 15, stripped down to her underwear with her arms wrapped protectively around her legs in an attempt to make herself smaller. Lexie could see that the girl has several thin lines cut across her arms, chest and legs, which had caused her blood to pool underneath her small shivering body. Along with the cuts, the girl showed obvious signs of torture and abuse with the bruising covering her face, neck and shoulders. Shocked at her discovery, Lexie's blood lust instantly disappears as she stepped forward to help the girl. Off to her left she hears a raspy chuckle and watches as a shadow moves away from a darkened corner. Standing between her and the girl stood a thin, gaunt man with greasy hair and tattered clothes, who looked to be in his mid-fifties; his pale white skin sparkled from the sunlight streaming in from the door behind her. Coming closer, the filthy man looks at his intruder from head to toe and smiles a twisted grin as he begins to lick the blood from his fingers.

"Well, looky what we have here," He says with excitement, "a Newborn." In a blink of an eye, he appears a few feet in front of her and reaches out to run a bloody finger across her cheek.

"A pretty, pretty little Newborn at that," he says with a laugh that made Lexie's skin crawl. "Smelled the blood didn'tcha?" With his vampire speed he backs away and roughly pulls the girl up by her hair and twisted her head slightly to expose her untouched neck, then puts a small cut over her jugular with his dirty fingernail to allow a small stream of blood to trickle down between her breasts; she yelps in pain.

Not sure what to do, Lexie flinches at the sound and grits her teeth as she helplessly watches the man torture the girl.

"How about we share?" he says looking back at Lexie, "An olive branch if you will…. Or maybe better yet a toast to celebrate a new friendship." He leans close and drags his tongue in the fresh blood from the girl's chest to her neck as she quietly sobs in fear. Lexie feels a wave of anger and revulsion slam into her as she begins to wonder what kind of twisted monster this vampire had been as a human and continues to watch as he puts his hand around the girls throat and tightens it just enough to make breathing painful.

"Well girl?" he asks, "Don'tcha want some or am I gonna get this all to myself?" Then runs his hand seductively down the length of girls arm and when she tries to pull it away, he grabs it to squeeze. Lexie can clearly hear a crack as the girls fragile bones snap under the near unstoppable pressure of the vampires grip and she screams in pain.

"Help me!" She begs hysterically to Lexie, "Please help me!" Unable to stand idly by and watch this monster torture this girl, Lexie moves closer.

"Get away from her!" she says through gritted teeth. Startled, he looked back to Lexie with narrowed eyes.

"What the hell did you just say to me girl?!" He asks as if she was nothing more than a disobedient child who had spoken back to her father. Lexie takes another step toward the vampire, her body rigid with anger.

"I said, get away from her, you sick bastard!"

Angry, he tilts his head to the side then says, "You know, I was kinda thinking the two of us could start our own little coven. In fact," he continues while undressing her with his eyes," I was even thinking that you might be interested in sampling the other pleasures that come along with having an unbreakable body."

Feeling a strange pressure start to build up; Lexie's body begins to tremble with rage as she watches this creature look back at the whimpering girl, then shrugs.

"I guess I'll have to wait to get my jollies off on the next pretty little thing I find." Then before Lexie can react, he reaches over and twists the girl's neck until there is a sickening crack and she falls to the floor twitching.

Shocked at what had just happened, she failed to see the vampire rushing toward her until he grabs her by the throat to pin her to the wall. Their eyes lock as they stared at each other; his with frustration at how this pretty little newborn rejected what he offered and caused him to spoil his entertainment for the day; and hers in pure hatred against the monster that had just snuffed out an innocent girls' life. He moves closer until his face is an inch away from hers, enjoying the feel of her body pressed against his and laughs.

"Being a newborn you're stronger than me, but I've been at this a lot longer, so I'm pretty damn sure this fight won't last long. Now you have two options, Girlie; you can either join me in drinking what's left in that kid's body." He stops and twists her neck slightly then licks the cheek he had previously marred with the girls blood. "Then we can consummate our new union in that bed back there for the next few days." He smiles to himself at the thought, before continuing. "Or you can take the second option, where I rip your head off and still enjoy your body before I destroy it."

His putrid unwashed smell and disgusting suggestions, angered her more as she struggled harder against his grip, until the pressure building up inside her begins to feel like an expanding balloon that's about to explode. Turning her head back to face him she looks into his demon-red eyes with uncontrolled hatred.

With that look he knew she wasn't going to play his game, "See you in Hell, Girlie." he laughs and puts his hands on either side of her head as if he intends to crush her skull. Before he can though, his body suddenly becomes taunt.

"Don't …Call….Me…..Girlie!" she growls with loathing.

The vampire suddenly releases her and backs up to wrap his arms around his chest, before doubling over in pain and screams, "What the hell!"


	11. Chapter 11: Broken to Pieces

Chapter 11: Broken to Pieces

Lexie doesn't hear him; in fact she is hardly aware of what she is doing, all she can think about is that young girl lying dead in the corner, tortured by this creature for sport. The pressure is continuing to build as she focuses on the man in front of her; until only one thought remains….he needs to die. Suddenly, she felt something shift inside her and a surge of energy was released causing the air to shimmer like a heat wave. Hitting the vampire, he cries out in shock unable to believe that this skinny little newborn is hurting him and she's not even touching him

Finding Lexie's trail had taken longer than he had anticipated and Edward could only hope she had found the strength to resist taking a human life. Finally reaching the cabin, he can see Lexie standing against the wall facing a rough looking vampire and rushed inside to help her; but stops when something shifts in the air and the vampire starts to scream.

Realizing that Lexie was causing the vampires pain, he decides to move back towards the cabin door, so that her focus doesn't accidentally shift to him. Carefully, he opens his mind to hear her thoughts and takes a step back when he 'feels' instead of 'hears' the anger directed toward the man. Pushing past the anger, he can now hear her barely readable thoughts, but gathers that the vampire has done something so twisted and evil, that she wants him dead. The power, he feels building up inside of her seems to be a deeply buried strength, perhaps even the very thing that had kept her alive so long lying under that plane. Realizing that something was happening he pulls back from her mind and watches in fascination as the air pressure once again shifts then hits the frozen man like a tornado.

The vampire looks at Lexie in disbelief as a crack appears in the middle of his forehead. "What are you?" he gasps as he feels it widen and begin to spread out like branches on a tree, until he looks like a statue being held together by glue. Then without warning, his body shatters into a million tiny pieces onto the cabin floor.

Shocked, Lexie stumbled back to lean against the wall, feeling the anger drain away until it's replaced by confusion. 'Oh my God, What the hell just happened?' She thought shaking her head in disbelief, 'Did I do that?' Being a rational person, she knew that what had happened was not humanly possible; but then again that man hadn't been human and now neither was she. Lexie wondered what else she could do and what it would mean to her new family. Closing her eyes, she quiets her thoughts then opens them when she remembers the real reason she had been drawn to this cabin. Pushing away from the wall, she looks over to the lifeless body lying in a pool of blood and tries to holds back a sob as she slowly walks over to the girl. Kneeling down, Lexie sadly examines her bruised and battered body with a Doctors eye and shudders at the evidence of torture she endured at that monster's hands.

Edward had remained frozen in stunned silence after witnessing the destruction of the vampire, but was now walking around the cabin slowly surveying the scene. He looked down at the pile of rubble on the floor then over to the young woman, who was now crying over the death of a girl, she had never even known.

Edward knew that a small percentage of immortals developed powers once they were turned; most were indicative of a natural characteristic transferred over from their human life. Jasper for example had been a charismatic person, who could see what others were feeling; so once turned he became empathic and could control the emotions of those around him. His sister, Alice was another example, she had premonitions as a human, but once changed could see the future. He had even had firsthand experience of feeling excruciating pain created by the cruel thoughts of Aro's pet, Jane; but he had never heard of an immortal powerful enough to shatter another immortal without touching them. He would have to tell Carlisle when they got back. Moving up behind her, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"There was nothing you could have done, this is what he had planned long before you showed up," he says patiently, but knows they must hurry and burn the vampire's remains before they can regenerate.

"Lexie, we need to get out of here and call the police." He pushes gently and then sees her nod in agreement.

He watches as she puts her hands on the girls head and gently returns it to a more natural position. She moves them away as another tear rolls down her face.

"I wish I could have saved you." She whispers, leaning forward to close the girl's lifeless eyes.

As she touches the girls face, she begins to feel something inside her rising again and moves her hand away in the event that her newfound ability causes more damage to the girl's body. But stops, when she realizes that this was different, it didn't feel hot like the last time. It feels cool and soothing, like water being run over a burn; she feels her arm begin to tingle as she touches the girl's face with the palm of her hand. Sensing a shift was coming; Lexie then ran her hands over the rest of the girl's injuries until her left hand lightly touched the girl's damaged throat and the right rests lightly over her heart. The tingling intensified until it shifted and seemed to flow from her chest, down her arms until she felt a tiny jolt of energy pass from her fingertips into the girl's body. Jerking them away from the sensation, she rubs her hands together and begins to move away. Suddenly, she hears a grinding noise and kneels back down in shock when she realizes that the broken bones in her neck and arm are healing; in fact all of the girl's injuries are starting to fade. Then, Lexie's eyes open wide in amazement as she hears a thump, then another coming from inside the girl's chest and she takes a breath.

Jumping up, Lexie backs away until she bumps into Edward, who had been standing behind her in stunned silence. Putting his hands on her arms he begins to pull her toward the vampire's remains.

"Whatever you just did… I didn't think that was possible.. I've never heard of an immortal with this kind of power." He says without taking his gaze off the girl, whose heartbeat was now strong and steady. "We need to take the vampires remains and go."

Lexie gives Edward a bewildered expression, "No we can't just leave her here alone… what if she wakes up and can't find her way home, or what if…." Edward put his hands on her shoulders and looks her in the eyes.

"We'll call in an anonymous tip to the police with her location and we can stay in the area until they come to make sure she gets help. But we need to get out of sight before she wakes up; there can't be any evidence that we were there."

She looks back at the unconscious girl still lying in a pool of her own blood, then looks back to Edward and nods in agreement. She would probably wake up soon and there would be no way they could explain what had happened to her tormentor or her injuries for that matter. Edward moves away and begins searching the cabin for a sack to put the remains in while Lexie finds an old blanket and lifts the girl out of the sticky blood to wrap her up. She can feel that the girl's body temperature was almost back to normal and smiled, happy that she was alive.

She looks down at the sticky blood coating her hands and feels nothing….her blood lust is gone. This whole situation had brought some deeply buried strength to the surface and she now knew that she could still be a Doctor and save lives.

"Come on let's go." Edward calls from the doorway and watches as Lexie gets up to follow him out into the forest. Pulling out his cell phone he called the police, and then went to destroy the remains, while Lexie washed off the girl's blood from her hands in a stream. Forty five minutes later, they could hear the approaching sirens and moved closer to the cabin to watch as the rescuers came for the teenager. As they brought her out on a stretcher, the girl looks confused, but otherwise totally unharmed. Lexie could only hope that whatever ability she had used to heal the girl from her injuries, had also removed today's tragic events from her memories. If not she was going to need a lot of therapy.

Edward smiled when he heard her thoughts. "You know your special, Lexie. What you did to that vampire and then the opposite to save that girl's life, it just shows what kind of person you were as a human."

"Edward, I killed that man….. I would have never done something like that as a human!" she said fiercely.

"No, Lex. He wasn't a man anymore…. Maybe he never was. You killed an evil and demented monster. You fought to defend an innocent child against a predator and I know that is something you would have done as a human. Today you discovered your gifts; the ability to destroy an immortal with your thoughts and an amazing ability to have so much compassion for a human life that you can heal the body with your touch. It just goes to show what kind of person you were as a human." He says, smiling.

Lexie gives him a smile back and watches as the paramedics work on the girl; somehow knowing she was going to be okay.

"Let's go. We have a lot to talk about. " She says and follows Edward home.


	12. Chapter 12: Can't hold on Anymore

**So Next chapters up...hope you all like it. **

* * *

Chapter 12: Can't hold on Anymore

Later that night the family gathered and they went over the events that had occurred at the cabin.

"I've never heard of an Immortal with your type of powers, Lexie." Carlisle said astounded at the news, then looked over to Jasper and Alice. "Have either of you?"

Jasper and Alice looked at each other, and then looked back to Carlisle. "No, we haven't," Alice said, "The closest has been Jane's ability to inflict pain on vampires and humans…. But to heal and bring a human back to life…. That's just… wow." Alice looks over to Lexie who is sitting in a chair by the fireplace. "How are you feeling by the way?"

"Umm…Okay, I guess. I'm a little tired and freaked out about everything. Edward told me that only a small percentage of Immortals gain a power after being turned, but it's usually only one at a time. I'd really like to know how I got two or is it just one power that splits into two based on my emotions."

"It's hard to say" says Carlisle, "most gifts are based on what a person was like as a human. For example, as a human Alice had minor premonitions but once she was turned she could see the future and Edward could guess what a person was thinking, but once turned he could read peoples thoughts."

"Well that explains a few things," Lexie mumbles, thinking about her thwarted escape attempts. Edward chuckles upon hearing her.

"Well, I think her main gift is healing," interjects Esme, "as a human, she became a Doctor to help save lives and it would appear that her new ability is an extension of that desire."

"But what about the blowing up thing…. I mean I'm not a vicious person… I've never hurt anyone before?" Lexie asks and watches as everyone looks over to Carlisle for an explanation.

"I agree with Esme, your gift is to be a healer; that's what you naturally worked towards as a human. As for the second one; I think it's a defensive power, which only flared because you felt angry and threatened. But without actually testing it out on another immortal, I can't be sure." Everyone in the room remained silent until Emmett once again spoken up to lighten the mood.

"So….note to self, don't piss off the newbie." Everyone chuckled at his joke.

* * *

Three more weeks have passed since the incident at the cabin and after discovering that human blood no longer bothered her when she began to help Carlisle treat patients from the surrounding towns at his free medical clinic and had even been allowed to go with him to the Forks hospital to "test" her healing abilities. It was there, that Carlisle began introducing her as his sister-in-law, Doctor Allison Scott; a first year surgical resident visiting from England.

After learning, Lexie's desire to continue her surgical residency, Jasper had gotten his "lawyer" to create her new identity and Carlisle had submitted her new credentials to several prestigious teaching hospitals in England. They had just received a response a few days ago that she had been accepted as a first year resident and would leave in 2 weeks to get set up in her new apartment before the hospital's orientation. She hated having to leave the country to start her new life, but after finding out through Alice's visions that the Volturi were still interested in acquiring key Cullen family members, Carlisle decided that they couldn't risk Aro finding out about Lexie's powers. So to keep her safe from Aro, she would have to remain separated from the Cullen family and could only contact them through a protected phone or secured emails.

It was late afternoon, exactly 6 weeks since the plane crash that Bella received a disturbing phone call in regards to Mark Sloan's condition. Anxiously waiting for her return from a shopping trip with Rose and Alice; Bella grabbed Lexie's arm as soon as she walked in the door and dragged her to her bedroom.

"Woah! Wait… Bella, let me put the packages down, before you rip my arm off!" she huffed, mentally exhausted after Alice's marathon shopping spree. Laying the bags on the bed, she turned to Bella. "Okay, what's so important, it couldn't wait 5 minutes?"

"Mark Sloan."

"What about, Mark? Is he okay?" she asks nervously.

"As you know, I promised to keep an eye on his progress and the last report I received a few weeks ago said that he had awoken from his coma and was recovering. But what it didn't say is that he had gone through something called a Surge…"

"Oh my God!" Lexie whispered behind her hands covering her mouth.

"And he slipped back into a coma, the next day." Bella continued. "But before he became unconscious again, he signed something called a DNR."

"Do Not Resuscitate, which means he didn't want any extreme measures taken to save his life." Lexie interrupted, with a choked sob.

"Lexie, listen to me!" Bella said taking her hand. "He requested only to remain on life support for one month. They are pulling the plug on him in 3 days!"

"No…No….I have to go…. I…I ..I've got to stop them…" Lexie said numbly as she grabbed her jacket and then tried to find her purse buried under the shopping bags, then stopped and looked toward the back of the house. "Wait, Carlisle might…..

Wrapping her hands around Lexie's arms, Bella turned her to face her.

"Hey, calm down. Everyone but us four girls has gone hunting, so no one is going to stop you from going to Seattle to help Dr. Sloan. Not that they would have anyway, Carlisle trusts you Lexie otherwise you wouldn't be heading for England in a few weeks. So pack a bag for a few days and I'll let the girls know what's going on." Bella wrapped her arms to give her a quick hug, but was surprised when Lexie hugged back.

"Thanks Bella, with talking me down from my freak out, you've become a great friend."

"No problem," Bella said smiling. "I'll meet you downstairs." then turned and left the room.

Ten minutes later, after saying goodbye and promising to be careful, she was on the road in Rosalie's Lexus. Since the drive from Forks to Seattle was going to take an hour and a half, she wouldn't be arriving until after 10 PM, which would give her plenty of time to get checked into a hotel and sneak in to visit Mark during the night shift.

It was around 2 AM when she left the hotel and parked near the rear entrance of Seattle Grace Mercy West. Getting out of the car, she looked up at the familiar building that had been her home for the last four years and made her way through the service corridor into the hospital, then ran up the back stairs until she reached the ICU. Due to working the night shifts during her residency, Lexie knew that the nurses shift change had just occurred and that the new nurse would be going over patient charts in the shift leader's office. Quietly she looks at the occupant in each room as she makes her way through the dimly lit hallway, then stops at room 210, where the soft glow from a lamp illuminates Marks face. Reaching his bedside, she stands in shock looking down at the pale lifeless body lying on the bed, the only sound coming from the respirator helping him breathe. Reaching down she lovingly runs her fingers along his jaw.

"Mark, it's me, Lexie. I've missed you so much… please wake up." She begs, watching his face for any sign that he heard her.

"What are we going to do now?" She whispered as she bends down to kiss his forehead. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. All those things you said at the crash site… marriage.. kids…growing old together… I wanted that so badly with you. It's not fair, we were supposed to live." She wipes a tear away, and then gently begins to stroke his hair.

"I hate this! I look at you lying so close to death and know it would be so easy to change you, so that we could be together forever. But I won't… I didn't get a choice with this new life and I won't make it for you, I love you too much" Putting one of her hands over his heart and another on his head, she began to feel her healing energy tingle down her arms and into her fingers, but yanked them away at the squeak of shoes coming from outside.

Going down the darkened hallway in ICU, Dr. Ross, a first year intern was rubbing his tired eyes when he quickly glanced into Dr. Sloan's room as he walked passed, then stopped 'Wait what was that?' he thought. Feeling a soft gust air behind him, like someone had rushed past, he quickly turned around and went into Room 210 but there was no one there. 'Where did she go?' he thought, positive that he had seen a beautiful woman with long dark hair standing next to Dr. Sloan's bed. Confused, he shook his head and thought 'Wow, this night rotation is exhausting…. Now I'm hallucinating beautiful women!', then chuckled softly and left the room to head to an on-call room for some sleep.

Already down the stairs and headed out to the car, Lexie was berating herself for not paying better attention to the outside hallway, she almost got caught. Getting into the car, she stopped herself from hitting the steering wheel, but still yelled. "Damn it!" She couldn't believe she hadn't completed healing Mark before that stupid Intern had spooked her. Since they were going to take him off of life support the day after tomorrow, she would have to return later tonight to complete the job.


	13. Chapter 13: Starts with Goodbye

**Thanks for all the good reviews! Enjoy the next Chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 13: Starts with Goodbye

Later that day, Lexie once again left the hotel and drove through the wet streets of rainy Seattle until she ended up in front of her parents' house. Sitting in the car she watched for any movement, then called the phone number to see if her Dad was home. When he didn't pick up the phone, she left the car and moved toward the back of the house where they hid the spare key and made her way in through the back door. Listening for her dad, she quietly went through the kitchen and then up the stairs to her old room and was surprised to find that all of her old stuff was still there, since she had thought her Dad would have packed it all away by now. Kneeling down she reached under the bed and pulled out an old photo album and began pulling out a few of the family pictures to take with her, then made her way over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book of poems, her mom had given her for her 16th birthday. Looking inside at the front cover, she smiled at her mom's handwritten note wishing her a Happy Birthday and placed the pictures inside before putting it into her purse. Moving to her desk, she took a piece of paper and began writing a letter to her Dad about how her life had been after her mom had died. She went on to write about her complicated relationship with Meredith and how happy she was to be a part of her life, then finished by saying that she loved him and hoped the he and Meredith could become family again. Folding it, she put it in an envelope and placed it in the desk drawer, knowing that eventually her dad would have to pack up her stuff and would find it. She hoped it would give him closure. After leaving the house, she drove to the cemetery to visit her mom's grave; once there she made her way through the rain to their family plot and was shocked to see a new tombstone placed next to her mom's. It was her tombstone! It read: Alexandra Caroline Grey, Beloved Daughter and Sister, Taken from us far too soon, may you soar among the Angels; then her date of birth and death. Looking at the Epitaph, she wiped the tears from her face and read it again until she realized that today was her 28th birthday, with so much going on she had forgotten. Moving to the left of her tombstone, she knelt down to place her mother's favorite flower, Carnations on her grave.

"Oh Mom, I wish you were here… there's so much I need to talk to you about… the crash, this new life. I can't be here anymore, so I'm leaving the country to start my residency over again at a new hospital. I've decided that I like Neuro, so I'm going to stick with that as my specialty and maybe branch out to become a Pediatric Neurologist, but we'll see…. I've got a few more years to decide." Standing up she wiped the wet leaves off the top of her mom's headstone. "Well I'm going to go, I love you Mom. I'll try to stop by before I leave." Then she turned and went back to the car to head back to the hotel to change out of her wet clothes before driving over to Meredith's house, she needed to see her sister and make sure she was okay.

Driving onto Meredith's street around 12 PM that night, Lexie parked several houses away and made her way toward the two story home, hearing the garage door open, she hid behind some bushes and watched Derek make his way to his car with a sleeping Zola in one arm and his cell phone in the other. With her enhanced hearing, she could make out part of his conversation.

"April? Yeah, it's Derek…Sorry I'm calling so late; look could you watch Zola for the night? Well I just got a call from the police saying that Meredith was arrested for being drunk and disorderly at a bar…..no, not Joe's… some other place down town." He listens to April's response while strapping Zola into her car seat. "Yeah, I suspected she was going to go out and drink…..Today was Lexie's 28th birthday….. Yeah, it's been rough, I think it's finally hit her that Lexie's not coming back…. No, she is still refusing to talk to Dr. Wyatt…. Okay, I really appreciate it; I'll be there in 10 minutes. Bye." Hanging up the phone, Lexie watched as he got into his car and backed out of the driveway. With her enhanced eyesight, she could see the cast on his left hand and how haggard he looked, then saw her beautiful niece sleeping peacefully in her car seat; she was getting so big! It filled her with sadness to see how much her family was suffering due to the plane crash.

Moving out from behind the bush, she found where they hid their spare key and stealthy made her way into the house, then up to the attic to her old room. She was again surprised that everything had remained untouched; nothing had been moved since that morning 6 weeks ago when she had hurriedly gotten ready for work. Going over to her dresser, she began rummaging through the drawers until she found a shoebox and went to sit on her bed. Opening it, she reached inside and began to lay the pictures and memorabilia over the bedspread to sort through them. Tears ran down her cheeks as she lovingly picked up each item to look at it before returning what she didn't want to keep back into the box. Two hours later, she packed up the photos and jewelry that she was going to take into her purse and returned the box to the dresser. Walking down the stairs from the attic, Lexie began going through each room trying to memorize everything before she left, when she heard the garage door open. Running back up to the attic, she quickly jimmied the window open and was about to make her way outside when she heard Meredith and Derek arguing downstairs.

"Damn it, Meredith! This has got to stop! You need help, but you won't let anyone in! If you don't want to talk to me then at least talk to Dr. Wyatt or anyone for that matter! What you're doing is affecting our family; Zola can sense everything you are feeling and she doesn't understand this dark and twisty mommy. I know how hard it was for you today and tomorrow with Mark…well, he's my brother and I have to watch them take him off of life support…..we all hurting Mere, but we can do this together. You just have to let me in."

"Derek, just leave me alone!" Meredith slurred, obviously very drunk. "You don't know… you can't possible know…she didn't need to be on that plane!" she continued erratically. "He's here, you can say goodbye…..there's a body and you will know where he'll be buried! But my sister….there's nothing!"

Lexie could hear a cabinet drawer opening and a clink on bottles hitting each other.

"Meredith you don't need any more to drink; give me the Tequila!" yelled Derek.

"No! It's mine…Leave me alone!" She argued drunkenly.

"Fine, just stay home if you're going to drink more…. I'm too exhausted to deal with you right now." A few minutes later Derekk and Meredith's bedroom door opened and slammed shut. After hearing what had transpired downstairs, Lexie decided that just seeing Meredith wasn't going to be enough, she had to talk to her sister and try to help her somehow. An hour later, just as she was about to make her way downstairs to the living room, there is a creak on the stairs and stumbling footsteps making their way down the hallway, then without warning the Attic door opens and Meredith stumbles up the stairs. Quickly, Lexie moves into the shadows near the back of the attic and watches Meredith sit on the bed and reach over to turn the lamp on that's next to the bed. The light causes her to pull her arm back to cover her eyes and she knocks over the picture frame sitting on the night stand, picking it up she squints at the picture of Lexie holding a smiling Zola. A sob rises in her chest as she runs her finger along Lexie's happy face.

"Happy Birthday," she whispers, "I miss you, Lexie."

Unable to watch, her sister in pain, Lexie begins to move towards her.

"I miss you too, Meredith."

Startled at the familiar voice, Meredith turns toward the sound and watches as her sister comes into the light. 'She looks so beautiful, like an angel', she thinks to herself.

"I know you're just a hallu..Hallucination from the alco…. Alcoh…..from the drinking." She slurs. "But I…. I don't care…I need to say that I'm so… sorry." Meredith stutters as she begins to sob harder.

"I'm sorry I…I….I'm such a b..bad sister, that I….I… wasn't there for you when you needed me the most… when you died…. I was so worried about D…Derek that I…. I couldn't think…maybe if I had stayed…"

"No, Meredith!" Lexie interrupts as she steps closer into the light. "I understood what was happening, it wasn't your fault…there was nothing any of you could have done to save me. You're not a bad sister….you're my Big sister and I Love you so much that it hurts me to see you like this." Lexie wants so desperately to take Meredith in her arms to comfort her, but knows to do so would reveal that she was not a hallucination.

"Mere, I'm okay and you need to get past this. They need you; Derek and Zola need you to be the person you were before the crash. You need to be the happy, loving person who would drag her husband up the stairs in the spur of the moment or the mommy who would blow raspberries kisses on her daughter's tummy to watch her squeals of happiness. And I need you to be a big sister to Molly and a daughter to our Dad."

"I….I can't!" Meredith interrupts as she sobs harder. "It hurts so much…. They can't find you… they can't find your body… I can't say goodbye!" she shuts her eyes and wraps her arms around her waist to stop the pain.

"Meredith, look at me." She demanded and watches her sister open her eyes. "You can say goodbye. My body is not important… I'm not there anymore… I'm here with you, right now. Tell me what you need to say."

"I was so stupid…. That first day when you came to work… I should have taken you in my arms and gave you a hug the minute you told me I was your sister. And I….I should have stepped in to help you when you w….w..were struggling with your.. our dad, but I stood back and watched, thinking that I was better than you. But I was never the better sister; you didn't give up on me until one day I realized that I liked being your big sister. You made me love you and now I've lost you….. It hurts so much to breathe…. It hurts so much to live without you." She sobbed harder then put her hand to her head and began to lie down in Lexie's bed and closed her eyes. "My head hurts." She mumbled.

Moving closer to the bed, Lexie can see that a hung over and exhausted Meredith has worn herself down and is starting to fall asleep. Picking up the afghan blanket from the foot of the bed she gently places it over her sisters shivering body and softly brushes her hair away from her face.

"Lexie?" she mumbles.

"Yes, Meredith?" Lexie replies.

"I love you." She whispers sleepily.

"I love you too." Lexie says while still stroking her sister's hair, and then stands up knowing it was time to leave. "Goodbye, Meredith."

"Bye… Lex." Meredith mumbles and begins to snore. Smiling sadly, Lexie bends down to place a gentle kiss on her sister's forehead then walks to the attic window. Opening it, she climbs onto the roof, then looks back to the sleeping woman.

"You're a good sister, Meredith Grey." She says quietly and watches her sister smile in her sleep. Closing the window, she jumped down and made her way back to the car. It was now time to help Mark.


	14. Chapter 14: Ends with Goodbye

**This was a really hard chapter to write. I knew what I wanted to say, but writing it down is much harder. Hope you enjoy. **

* * *

Chapter 14: Ends with Goodbye

Once inside the car she looked at the dashboard clock and realized that she had taken too long at Meredith's house; morning rounds would start in a few hours so that didn't give her much time to get into Mark room to heal him before she could say goodbye. Arriving at the hospital, Lexie quickly made her way to Mark's room, where she shut the partition shades and walked to his bedside. She was startled by how much worse he looked in just one day!

"Okay, let's try this again." She whispered before putting her left hand on his forehead and the right over his heart. Focusing she began to draw energy from deep inside herself until the cool tingly feeling rushed down her arms and send an electrical shock through her fingertips into his body. Removing her hands, she rubbed them to together to make the tingling sensation go away and then began turning off the machines alarms so they didn't go off when he woke up. Since she was still learning how to control the strength of her powers, she wasn't sure how long it was going to take before Mark began showing signs of improvement. Hopefully, he would begin to wake up before morning rounds which would be in two hours; otherwise she wasn't going to be able to talk to him before she left Seattle. A half an hour later, she was still waiting patiently, but there still weren't any signs of improvement. Confused by his lack of response, she pulled his chart from the end of his bed and began to review all of the medical procedures that had been completed since his arrival from Boise Memorial. According to the file, all of his surgeries to repair the damage done to his body were successful, but neither Doctor's Altman nor Bailey could find a reason why he was not responding to treatment. At the bottom of the chart, was a notation of 'Dying from a broken heart?'

Shocked, she looked at the comatose man lying on the bed. 'He wants to die.' She thought, assuming that her healing powers won't work if mind and body didn't cooperate. Angry that he had given up, she moved back to his bedside and took his warm hand in hers before leaning down to whisper into his ear.

"Damn you, Mark Sloan! You don't get to do this to me! You don't get to decide to die, because I had to leave…. So you better listen to me, mister and get your ass back here to talk to me!" She said in a quiet angry voice, and then softened her tone as a tear ran down her cheek.

"Please… Mark," she begged. "I love you… you need to fight. Please follow my voice and come back." Still not seeing a response, her temper flared again.

"Damn it, Mark! Stop trying to take the easy way out! Fight, Damn you! Fight for me!" His fingers twitched in response and she smiled as his skin began to change from the white-grey color associated with death to a healthy pink; moaning softly he began to make choking noise around the intubation tube.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay…. I'm going to get this out of your throat, so you can breathe on your own." She said as she gently removed the intubation tube and watched him cough a little to catch his breath. Moving to the table, she grabbed a cup of water and held the straw next to his lips.

"Here take a sip." She whispered, and then looked out the window behind his bed to see the sun begin to rise. She didn't have much time.

With his eyes still closed he slowly began to drink the cool water and felt instantaneous relief to his scratchy throat. Very groggy, his heavy eyes struggled to open but widened as the blurry figure of the dark haired woman standing next to him came into focus, her pale skin bathed in a heavenly glow as the sun shined though the window. He smiled knowing that his angel had finally arrived.

"Lexie, you came back for me." He rasped, his heart leaping in joy as he watched her lean over him and felt her loving fingers gently run through his hair.

"How could I not come back," she said choking back a sob, "I had to make sure you weren't going to do something stupid like die for me…. I love you too much to let that happen."

Mark tried to sit up, to get himself in a better position and clear his head, but his body was too weak to move after being in a coma for so long. Finally he gave up and just sat there, looking at her adoringly.

"I watched you die, Lex," said Mark choking back the powerful memory of her lying trapped underneath the wreckage of the plane. The woman standing before him was beyond beautiful, perfect even; everything from her long dark hair to her flawless skin looked untouched by the crash. But it was her sad eyes that showed the true depth of what she had endured. "How is it you're here? Please tell me I'm not dreaming"

She ran her hand through his hair again, playing with little errant strands, then down his face to lovingly stoke the bristles of his beard. 'God he is so handsome,' she thought as she looked into his hopeful blue eyes and wished things could have ended differently.

"There is so much I want to tell you Mark, so much I want you to understand. But my time here is limited and I need to leave in a moment, I just had to make sure you where alright."

"No Lexie please, you can't go!" cried Mark trying to sit up again, this time more forcefully but Lexie had put her hand gently on his chest to hold him down so he didn't hurt himself. Unable to move, he stopped struggling and covered her hand with his so he could hold on to her.

"I love you so much, more than anything in the world," he said as tears ran down his face and his breathing became ragged. "Watching the life drain from your eyes as you died was the worst moment of my life. Please, don't make me lose you again." He begged.

Lexie felt as if her heart would shatter into a million pieces from his pain and wished she could stop it by telling him the truth about her new life; but to do so would put his life at risk from the Volturi. Looking behind his bed, she could feel the rays from the sun streaming through the window and knew that it was making her skin shine from its light. As much as she hated lying to him, she knew that she had to make him think that this was a dream caused by the coma. Removing her hand from his, she moved away and without him noticing injected a sedative into his IV drip to put him back to sleep. Moving back to his side, she cupped his face with her hand.

"Mark, I love you so much that leaving you behind feels like my soul has been ripped in half and as much as I want us to be together; you can't follow me. So cry for me and be angry that I left; but I'm asking …. No begging you... not to give up. There are so many people who need you in their lives...Sofia...Derek...Callie and so many more. What happened with the crash... my death... if you leave now it will break them, so please do what couldn't; stay and live for me."

"Lex….I don't know if I can," he slurred as he fought to keep his eyes open on the woman he loved, "you made me a better person and without you….. I can't …. I just can't breathe."

"Oh Mark…for those moments when it becomes so unbearable that you feel like you can't go on. I want you to close your eyes and imagine me lying in your arms with my head resting on your chest and with every breath you take, you'll hear me say I love you." Leaning in she gave him a kiss on his soft lips and watched as he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "I love you." She whispered and moved away. Picking up his chart, she notated the time the intubation tube had been removed with her initials and realized that he was her last patient; this would be the last time she could call herself Doctor Alexandra Grey.

Moving toward the door, she could hear the interns and nurses in the far hallway talking as they gathered to start their rounds. Looking at Mark one last time, she slipped out of his room and made her way toward the back stairwell; once inside she knew that the 5AM shift had arrived and everyone from Doctors to cafeteria workers would be moving through each floor to get to their designated jobs. Leaving the way she had come in was no longer an option, so she began running up the stairs until she reached the Helo pad on the roof and found a place to jump down off the building undetected and quickly made her way to the car to leave the now filled up parking lot. As she began pulling out of the parking lot, she looked back to the hospital that had been her home for the last four years and felt the tears begin to well up in her eyes; wiping them away she pushed down her emotions and drove to her hotel. Once there Lexie quickly packed up her luggage to check out for her return trip to Forks.

A hour and half later, she pulled in front of the Cullen home and numbly made her way inside to find Carlisle and Esme standing in the kitchen. Upon seeing them, all of the pent up emotion Lexie had been holding in since leaving Seattle came rushing out like, a damn had burst and she began to sob uncontrollably over everything she had just left behind. Rushing to her side, Esme wrapped arms around the girl's shaking body and felt her return the hug.

"Shhh," Esme said softly as she stoked Lexie's hair. "It's alright sweetheart… just cry it out. You'll feel better when you're done."

After a several minutes, Lexie's opened her eyes and looked over Esme's shoulder to see that Carlisle had moved up behind them and was patiently waiting for her tears to subside.

"Carlisle, could you please book me a flight to England as soon as possible?" Lexie asks her voice still husky from crying, "It…. It hurts too much… I've said my goodbyes… now I've got to move on."

Reaching out, he cups her tear stained face and smiles lovingly at his new daughter.

"Of course, Lexie, if that is what you need to do… then I'll call the airlines today." He watched as she nodded and laid her head back down on his wife's shoulder and allowed her to continue to hold her.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital; everyone had gathered outside Mark's room waiting for Bailey to begin the necessary protocols for life support removal. Getting off the elevator, she gave a heavy sigh and made her way to room 210. Sadly she acknowledged Derek Shepherd and Callie Torres as she walked past into Sloan's room, but gasped when she saw him lying peacefully in his bed.

"Who the hell removed him from life support!" she yelped and rushed to his side to begin listening for a pulse. Hearing Miranda's yell, Callie and Derek rushed inside and could see that Mark was no longer intubated. Shocked and upset, that someone had let Mark die alone, they both began demanding an explanation when the morning nurse ran it.

"Everyone, be quiet!" Bailey shouted as she closed her eyes to listen for a heartbeat through her stethoscope and then broke out in a big smile as she heard a steady thump coming from his chest.

"He's alive and breathing normally!" she said looking back at a shocked Shepherd and Torres, then moved to pull his chart from the end of his bed. Looking at the last entry, she gasped and dropped the chart onto the floor.

"Miranda, what's wrong?" Callie asked and bent down to pick up the Chart off the floor and was about to look at it when she heard Mark sigh and begin to mumble; moving closer she leaned down to hear him whisper, "Lexie".

Also hearing the name he whispered, wide-eyed Bailey licked her lips and pointed to the chart. "Those are Little Grey's initials."

"No…. that's not possible." Callie said and opened the chart to look inside before numbly handing it to Derek. The three of them looked at each other in shock, because the last entry was indeed signed in Lexie's familiar handwriting with her initials _ACG_.

* * *

** Okay, so I know a few of you may be upset that Mark and Lexie didn't end up together (yet), but the story isn't over. I'm doing 20 to 25 chapters based on how this story is playing out in my head, so be patient... and as always I appreciate the great reviews... they make me smile.**


	15. Chapter 15: Where Does the Time Go?

**New Chapters up. FYI Lexie's new name is Allison, so to avoid confusion that's the name I use when writing about her. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 15: Where does the time go?

Five years later, Doctor Allison Scott, formerly known as Lexie Grey closed her eyes and focused on not crushing the arms on her seat when the 747 engines roared as it took off from London's Heathrow Airport. She knew that being an immortal, this irrational fear of flying should have gone away, but she still cringed every time she got in an airplane. Hearing a chuckle, to her right, Allison relaxed her grip and opened her eyes to look at the smiling man sitting directly opposite from her in first class.

"Not much of a flyer, huh?" he joked as he took in her appearance from head to toe. She was a gorgeous woman wearing a cream colored cashmere sweater with her tight jeans tucked into tall boots. Her long dark hair looked like silk as she pushed it back behind her ear and his breath caught as he looked into the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"No, I'm not much of a flyer…. I had a really bad experience a few years ago." She replied politely with her soft British accent, knowing that she was once again being hit on. Allison had noticed that he was very handsome, but she could tell that he was type of person that used his looks to his advantage… probably inside the bed and out. Basically, he was flirting with her to get into her pants.

"Oh, well that's too bad. I fly so much for business…. I'm the Vice President of one of the top ten Multimedia companies in the US… that it's become second nature to me. My name is Maxwell Richardson, by the way." He bragged reaching across the aisle to shake her hand.

Mentally she sighed realizing that this was going to be a long flight. With her vampire senses, she could tell from the change in his heartbeat and the rush of blood going toward his lower extremities that he was seriously turned on by the thought of touching her. Reaching out her hand, she quickly returned his handshake and replied "Allison Scott."

Disappointed that she hadn't held his hand longer, he continued flirting; confident that before the end of this trip, he would be initiating her in the mile high club. He knew she was young, probably a college student, but damn he wanted her so bad it hurt.

"So.. Allison, are you headed to New York for business or pleasure, because I would love to show you around to some of the local hot spots, then maybe go out to dinner and back to my place."

"Actually, I'm not staying in New York… I have to catch a connecting flight to San Francisco tomorrow, so I can take my oral medical boards." She replied, still trying to be polite.

"Really?" he asked, "I bet you look sexy in a little nurse's uniform."

"I'm not a nurse; I'm a Doctor studying to be a Neurosurgeon." She answered shortly; there was no way she was going to be able to put up with this guy for the trip back to the States.

"Oh God," he mumbled shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Would I love to play Doctor with you."

Luckily, she became distracted from thoughts about ripping off his head when the pilot announced that seatbelts could be removed and electronic devices turned back on. Standing up she was reaching into the overhead, when she felt him grab her ass. Softly snarling, she turned around in a blink of an eye and sent a small electrical jolt through her fingertip to his temple and watched as he slumped into his seat, unconscious. Smiling now that the annoying man would be unconscious for several hours she turned back around to pull her briefcase from the overhead before making her way up to a Stewardess to request a seat change. A few minutes later she was sitting several aisles away and pulled out her computer to research possible hospitals that she knew would be interested in offering her a fellowship.

Almost 20 hours after leaving London, she arrived at the hotel, checked-in and made her way to the room. Putting her luggage down, she surveyed the room then went to the window to look at the Golden Gate Bridge. 'This is surreal,' she thought to herself. 'Had there not been a plane crash, I would have come here to do my Oral boards four years ago as Doctor Lexie Grey.' Moving away from the window she gathered her clothes and got into the shower for the meet and greet, being held downstairs in the conference room. Once ready, she looked at the woman staring back at her in the mirror and shook her head; the younger face and body still surprised her since she looked 24 instead of her actual age of 33. As a human she knew she was cute, some even called her pretty but being turned into an immortal had changed her into a stunningly beautiful young woman, which is why she kept getting hit on by strange men.

Heading downstairs, she reached the conference room and followed the rest of the newcomers toward a table that held a hundred or more nametags lined up alphabetically. Finding her name, she continued following the group in front of her until they reached the bar running along the back wall and ordered a glass of Tequila and lime. Moving away she began looking for somewhere to sit, but almost dropped her drink when a young black man blindly swung around and bumped into her arm.

"Oh gosh!" he said grabbing a napkin off a table to begin awkwardly wiping the Tequila off of her arm. "I'm so sorry…. It's so crazy in here I didn't see you!"

"That's okay." She said, smiling as she took the napkin and finished cleaning up.

"No it's my fault! What were you drinking, I'll go get you another one?" he asked earnestly.

"No, really…. I still have half a glass. I'm good." Allison insisted in her soft British accent.

"Oh…Okay, if you're sure." He said with a friendly smile and reached out his hand. "Oh by the way, I'm Shane Ross."

"Allison Scott, It's nice to meet you." She replied, returning his handshake.

"So are with a group of residents from your hospital?" Shane asks.

"No actually, I'm the only resident from my hospital. That's why I was looking for an open chair."

"Well then why don't you sit with me and my friends?" Shane asked excitedly.

"Okay… Sure lead the way." She gestured and followed him to a table, where four women sat. Mentally sighing in relief that he was being honestly friendly, she waited to be introduced.

"Hey guys! This is Allison Scott… She's on her own, so I asked her to sit with us." Pointing to each woman from left to right, Shane began introductions.

"Allison, these are my friends…. Jo Wilson, Heather Brooks, Stephanie Edwards and Leah Murphy; we're all residents from Grey Memorial Hospital in Seattle."

"Grey Memorial?" she asks startled by the name and the realization that she was sitting with Doctors, she would have worked with; if not for the crash.

"Oh wow…. Love your accent." Heather gushed before continuing. "Yeah when we started as interns it was called Seattle Grace Mercy West, but then there was an accident where several of the Attending's were injured and one was killed. So they sued the hospital and then bought it with their settlement money. They renamed it for the Doctor that was killed."

"Yeah, I guess it was Medusa's little sister that was killed, but she wasn't an Attending, she was just a resident. I think her name was Doctor Lexie Grey." Said Leah; adding her own bit of gossip.

"Medusa?" Allison giggled, picturing Meredith with snakes for her hair.

"Yeah, that's what we called the new Attending General Surgeon, Meredith Grey." Stephanie interjected. "Cause everyone froze in fear anytime she looked at you… God she can be harsh."

"Oh, come on Steph! She's gotten better since having kids." Jo interrupted before taking a drink of her beer.

'Meredith has kids? She stayed in Seattle?' Allison thought and leaned forward hoping to hear more about her sister, but was disappointed when they began to ask her questions.

"So Allison, where did you do your Residency?" asks Jo.

"I was at St. George's Hospital in Tooting, England." She responded before taking a sip of her Tequila.

"That explains the accent." Heather giggled, "Why are you taking your boards in the States?"

"Well, my sister and her family have just moved to Montana, so by moving here I could visit them more than once a year. I really miss not having family close by." Taking another drink she continued. "Besides, I'm hoping to get a fellowship to specialize in Neurosurgery and since five of the best Neurosurgeon's in the world are in this country, it seemed like a good idea."

"I'm specializing in Neuro, too!" Shane said excitedly. "I've been working under Doctor Shepherd…. He's like awesome!"

"Has he offered you a fellowship at Grey's?" she curiously asked.

"No, because he knew I wanted to head back to my hometown in Chicago to be closer to my family. So I'm hoping to get a fellowship at Northwestern." He said smiling, and then frowned as he thought about tomorrow's meeting with the examiners. "Of course, that all depends if I pass my boards."

Everyone remained in quiet contemplation for a few minutes, until a waiter came by to take all of their food orders. Sitting with the group for another hour, Allison picked at the food before having the waiter put it in a too- go container and then took each of their phone numbers before saying goodbye. Making her way to the Lobby to go for a walk, she was looking down at a text sent by Alice when she bumped into an older woman.

"I'm so sorry! Not only should I not drive while texting…. I guess I shouldn't walk either." Allison joked.

"Oh Sugar, don't you worry about that, accidents happen." Catherine Avery smiled while taking a good look at the young woman, who looked too young to be a 5th year. "Are you here to take your boards tomorrow?"

"Ah, yes…. Doctor Allison Scott." She said smiling politely.

"Oh my…. Are you the Resident from St George's Hospital in England that was awarded the Young Doctor's Award last year?" Catherine asked in excitement.

"Yes, that was me." She said slightly embarrassed to be recognized.

"Well then I am simply ecstatic that we bumped into each other! My name is Doctor Catherine Avery… I'm an attending from Mass Gen out of Boston and the Co-chairman of the Harper Avery Foundation. We were under the impression by your Attending, Doctor Radcliffe that you were going to continue your Fellowship at St George and would not be interested in coming to the States."

"Yes….well… Doctor Radcliffe is unaware that I've come over here to take my boards. He has been a bit difficult since I told him that I would like to study with another Neurosurgeon during my Fellowship and has been telling everyone that I'm staying in England. He doesn't seem to understand that I have family over here and would like to spend more time with them."

"Oh Well, his loss is our gain! Will you be staying in the States for a little while after taking your boards?"

"Yes, I'm going to visit my sister and her family in Montana for a few weeks."

"That's perfect! Give me your phone number and I'm positive once the Administrator at Mass Gen hears that you are available, they will be calling you for an interview. In fact, I'm sure once the rest of the examiners hear you're here for the test, your phone will be ringing off of the hook!" She laughed and watched as the young woman walk over to the front desk and write down her information on a paper. 'Oh my… she's practically a baby.' Catherine thought to herself. 'It's hard to believe, that this young woman could one day be one of the best Neurosurgeons in the world.'

Catherine smiled widely as Allison handed her the phone number. "Thank you so much, Sweetheart. You get to bed soon and Good Luck tomorrow!"

Allison smiled and waved goodbye before walking out of the hotel to make her way down the street.

'Holy Crap!' she thought to herself, it's no wonder why Jackson had sent her on a trip to visit Molly the week his mother had come to Seattle to do a surgery. She's a force of nature that can either suck you in or blow you away. It's a good thing she never met me as Lexie Grey… or that would have been an interesting conversation.' Seeing a homeless man sitting next to a building, she bent over and handed him her uneaten meal before making her way back to the hotel to call the Cullen's and let them know she was coming for a visit.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel; Catherine Avery had met up with her boyfriend Richard Webber and was excitedly telling him about her chance encounter with the young doctor.

"Catherine, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with this resident….. Of course, I'm not the Chief anymore, so I don't need to keep up with interviewing potential Fellowship candidates." Richard said.

"Sweetheart, I know you don't care about this stuff anymore. But if I was you, I would call Derek Shepherd right now and find out if he would be interested to know that Doctor Allison Scott is here to take her oral boards tomorrow."

"It's really late, Catherine… he's probably sleeping." Richard hesitated.

"Baby…trust me…. He'll want to know." she said handing him the phone. "I'm going to get ready for bed, meet you there."

"Okay. I'll be there in a few minutes." He said and gave her a kiss, then began dialing Derek's number.

"Hey, Derek. It's Richard." He continued as Derek asked sleepily what was going on. "I've just got one question for you… how excited would you be to know the Doctor Allison Scott is here right now to take her oral boards?"

Richard had to pull the phone away from his ear as Derek started yelling excitedly that he was very interested in this young resident. Richard smiled and gave him the phone number Catherine had provided and promised that he would try to meet with the young woman after her boards to let her know that Grey Memorial Hospital was very interested in interviewing her for a fellowship. Hanging up the phone, Richard was chuckling when he climbed into bed with Catherine.

"You were right, Shepherd was very excited about Doctor Scott being here." He said wrapping his arms around her. "You'll have to point her out to me, so I can meet her."

"I told you so." She giggled as she snuggled deeper into his chest.

The next day ended up being a very long one, especially for the residents going in front of examiners during three separate sessions over several hours. Exhausted, the Grey Memorial residents sat down on the couches out in the hotel lobby.

"Oh my God, that was just…. Brutal!" whined Jo as she lifted her sweat dampened blouse off of her skin with a grimace.

"My brain feels like mush." Stephanie mumbled, as she held her head in hands.

"That was…that wasn't a test… it was an interrogation." Leah moaned as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the couch. The rest just sat in silence, numbed by the day's events. Seeing the group sitting in the Lobby, Allison smiled and made her way over to her new friends.

"Hey, how did it go?" she asked giving each a friendly smile.

"Ugg, how do you do that?" Heather asks as she looks toward Allison.

"Do what?" Allison asks confused by the question.

"Look perfect! I've got a knot in my stomach the size of my fist; my clothes feel like they're stuck to my body and my brain feels like it's been pureed in a blender. You just went through the same torture as the rest of us, but you don't look frazzled or even tired by today's sessions!"

Chuckling, Allison just shrugged her shoulders. "I just decided not to worry about it. If I don't pass here, I can still head back to England to take the boards there."

"Oh not fair." Sighed Shane, but then moaned as he saw Doctors Avery and Webber heading their way.

"Yohoo! Doctor Scott?" called Catherine. Turning toward the woman, she watched her approach, but kept her features calm when she saw a familiar face standing behind her. He had a shocked look on his face.

"Oh Sweetheart, I'm so happy we caught you before you left." Gesturing toward Richard, she continued. "I wanted to introduce you to Doctor Richard Webber, he's an attending at Grey Memorial Hospital and he would like to speak with you."

Doctor Webber had remained in stunned silence while the Catherine had introduced him to the young Doctor; pulling himself together he reached out to shake her hand and felt a small jolt a familiarity when she returned his handshake.

"Hello, Doctor Scott. I hope you don't mind but Doctor Avery told me of your plans to complete your Fellowship here in the States and I contacted my head of Neurosurgery, Doctor Derek Shepherd. He has asked me to extend an invitation for you to visit the Grey Memorial Hospital in Seattle to review his Fellowship program. Can I provide him with your phone number to set up a meeting in a week or so?"

"Oh… Sure, that would be wonderful. I've heard of Doctor Shepherd's program from his resident Doctor Ross, it would be an honor to meet with him." Allison replied, and then looked down at her watch. "Oh, I'm sorry but I have to hurry to catch my plane. Please have someone call me to set up an appointment. It was pleasure to meet with you both." Turning back to the Grey residents, who were all staring at her with shocked looks, she said. "Thank you for letting me hang out with you all last night; maybe we can get together soon."

Watching her leave, Richard just shook his head in disbelief.

"Richard, what's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." Catherine asks reaching out to put a comforting hand on his arm.

"I feel like I just have…. That girl looks exactly like Lexie Grey." He said sadly, remembering how they lost her five years ago.

"Meredith's sister, Lexie?" Catherine says, putting a hand over her heart in surprise and watches Richard nod in acknowledgement, then they both watch as the girl gets on the elevator.

"Oh my." She whispers.


	16. Chapter 16: She Wants To Go Home

**Sorry this is a few days late, I had a medical procedure done and I was pretty loopy until the medicine wore off! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 16: She Wants To Go Home

After arriving at Glacier National Park Airport in Montana, Allison drove her rental car through the small town of Whitefish until she reached the new home for the Cullen family. Getting out of the car she took in the large log cabin nestled among the trees at the base of a gorgeous mountain range and smiled at the peaceful setting.

"Lexie!" squealed Alice shattering the quiet as she burst out of the front door and ran to wrap her arms around her sister. "I couldn't believe it when I had a vision of you coming back to the States; it's been so long since I've seen you!"

"I've missed you too, Alice!" she laughed, giving the smaller woman a hug, then turned to give Jasper a hug since he followed Alice out of the house. Looking behind them, she could see a smiling Carlisle and Esme walking toward her.

"Welcome back, Sweetheart!" said Esme, giving her daughter a hug. "It's good to have you home"

Releasing Esme, she turned and walked into Carlisle's outstretched arms. "Ahh Lexie, you know when I said you had to hide from the Volturi, it didn't mean you had to remain invisible to us. You could have come back for a visit sooner." He said stroking her hair down her back.

"Oh, I know Carlisle. But it was so painful at first, with everything that had happened and then I just got so busy completing my Residency… the time just flew by." She relied, and then chuckled. "Besides, it's not like you all haven't visited me since I've been away. Rosalie and Emmett stopped by six months ago and didn't leave for two weeks!"

"So where's everyone else?" she asked, looking over their shoulders toward the house.

"Well, since Alice couldn't provide an exact date of when you were going to arrive, Rosalie and Emmett went into Canada to hunt." Jasper said while pulling her luggage out of the car.

"As for Edward, Bella, and Reneesmee, they're in Forks trying to finish packing up their house, but they should arrive next week." Carlisle said as he put his arm around Lexie's waist and propelled her toward the house.

Going inside, she stopped in the foyer to take in the spacious living room decorated in warm earth tones with a roaring fire blazing in the fire place. Off to the left was a large walk in kitchen and dining room and a staircase to the upstairs floor.

"It's beautiful. Did you buy it or have it built?" she asked Esme.

"We bought it, but had some modifications done. Alice can you show Lexie to her room?" Esme said while giving Lexie a kiss on her cheek. "If you don't like how I've decorated your room, just let me know and we can go shopping to get what you want."

"Esme, why would you keep a room for me? I didn't even plan to come back here until a few days ago." She asked surprised.

Esme lovingly put her hand to Lexie's cheek. "Sweetheart, I know it was very hard for you to accept us and your new life after you were changed. But you are our daughter and no matter what happens in the future, there will always be a room for you in this family and our home." Lexie smiled gratefully at Esme and whispered a soft, "Thank you."

"Come on, I'll show you to your room." Alice said and then chuckled. "Love the British accent, by the way."

"Sorry, it's a habit now; I didn't realize I was still using it." She giggled, switching back to her American accent and followed her up the stairs.

Two hours later, Rosalie and Emmett had returned from their trip and they were all sitting around the fireplace asking Lexie questions about her life in England.

"Lexie, please don't take this the wrong way, because I'm very happy that you have finally come to visit us." Carlisle started, then asked. "But why are you here? You still have two more years of specialized training as a fellow before becoming a board certified Neurosurgeon."

"Well I was originally going to stay at St Georges for both my residency and fellowship, but I'm not happy with my instructor, Doctor Radcliff's teaching quality." Lexie began, "A few months ago, I let him know that after my residency I would be accepting a Fellowship program with a different hospital; preferably in the States, since it has five of the best programs in the world. Well I guess he didn't like that idea because I found out two weeks ago that he has been rejecting all of the requests from other hospitals to set up appointments for me to review their programs." Standing up she walked over to the fire to watch the flames before continuing.

"Needless to say, I was very upset. But confronting him about his underhanded methods would do no good, since he's determined to keep me in his program. So I contacted the American Medical Board of Surgery on my own to submit an application to take their Oral Boards. And once I received the approval letter; I called the hospital to let them know that I had a family emergency and had to take two weeks off." Turning away from the fireplace, Lexie sat back down and was about to continue, when Esme asked.

"When are you supposed to take this test?"

"I actually flew into San Francisco to go in front of the Boards yesterday and I received confirmation this morning that I passed."

"So what happens now? Do you contact the hospitals that have the fellowship programs you are interested in?" asked Rosalie.

"Actually, I bumped into one of the interviewers from Boston who recognized my name and she told me that once word got around that I was interested in pursuing a Fellowship program here, I would have several interview offers by the end of the week. And she's right; so far I've received calls from Mass Gen, UHC, Stanford, Harvard and Grey Memorial."

"Wait… Grey Memorial? That's the new name for Seattle Grace Mercy West; the hospital you originally began your residency as Lexie Grey." Carlisle said.

"Yes it is." She said, "But in my defense, I didn't know about the name change until the boards."

"Lexie, you can't seriously be considering interviewing there?" Carlisle said with a warning tone. "It's too risky, you could be recognized."

"Carlisle, I'm not even sure if I'm going to accept the interview yet, but if I do it will be my decision not yours." Standing up she began to pace before continuing. "It's been 5 years since the plane crash and most of the people I once knew may now be gone… things change…. I've changed. Becoming an immortal has altered my appearance; the face and body I see in the mirror every day looks similar, but is decidedly different. I look younger, with flawless unscarred skin and light brown eyes; my hair is darker with more curls and when I speak it's with soft British accent, that doesn't ramble when I get nervous."

Lexie stops pacing to face her family, "I am a different person and anyone who knew Lexie Grey before the crash will see that. Please trust me, no matter what I decide…. I will be careful."

Carlisle looked away from Lexie's serious face to his wife and other children; they all nodded in agreement. Standing up, he took her hand in his before carefully choosing the right words to say.

"Lexie, we do trust you. So let me try to explain why out of all of my children, I worry about you the most." He said watching as a confused expression flitted across her face.

"I was created around the 1500's and followed the expected norms on how an immortal should exist by hiding in the shadows and feeding on humans. For the most part that is how most exist even today; some are nomadic and live day to day, some join into small groups that mark territories and hunt the humans inside those boundaries as if they were cattle and then there are the Volturi, who have grown so powerful that they have their victims brought to them. But the common factor for all that exist on human blood, is that they still have to hide in the shadows to avoid detection and I lived like that for hundreds of years, until I got tired of seeing the fear and suffering on my victims faces as I drained their lives. So I began taking animal blood and fought my baser instincts to begin helping humans by becoming a healer and then a doctor as medicine progressed. It was during the Influenza epidemic of 1910 that I realized I wanted more… I wanted a family; so I saved Edward, Esme and then a few decades later, Rosalie. I taught them how to fight the blood lust and adapt, so that we can live among humans instead of hiding from them." Carlisle stopped then gestured toward the outside forest surrounding the house.

"Look around you, Lexie, our home is isolated and several miles away from the nearest human. The hospital I'm practicing in is small and gets minimal attention from the outside world; the kids go to a local High School with only a few hundred students, so it's easy to pull them out if we need to leave quickly. We have adapted, but we are still in the shadows; living on the outskirts of humanity."

"You on the other hand, are not hiding from anything." he says smiling. "You are a child of this modern world, where the need to adapt is faster because everything from human behavior to technology can change in a second. After becoming an immortal, you learned how to control your blood lust and powers in a few weeks, so that you could move beyond this family to your goal of becoming a Neurosurgeon."

Putting his hands on her shoulders, he says proudly. "Lexie, I worry because you are the first of our kind that has truly stepped out of the shadows to face humanity and aspire to do something more than survival…. I worry because I don't know how to protect you."

"Carlisle," Lexie said looking at Carlisle, then to the rest of the Cullen's sitting around the fire. "I understand the need to protect your family and I'm honored to be a part of it, but no matter how hard a parent tries to protect their child, you can't always keep them safe. All you can do is provide guidance and offer them your support….. Please just give me your support no matter what I decide."

"You will always have our support." Esme said standing up to give Lexie a hug.

"Hey Lex?" Emmett said interrupting the somber moment.

"Yes Emmett?" she replied looking over to the tallest Cullen.

"You know that whole support thing also includes your big brothers willingness to kick the ass of anyone who decides to bother you, right?" Emmett said with a serious but hopeful tone in his voice, unable to stop herself she began to laugh, until the rest of the family began to join in.

Back in Seattle, Richard Webber made his way through the corridors of Grey Memorial Hospital until he reached Derek Shepherd's office and knocked and waited for a reply before entering. Looking up from the file he was working on, Derek smiled at his old friend standing in the doorway.

"Richard, Welcome back! How did our Residents do this year?"

"They did well, all of them passed." Richard reported happily before continuing. "I just wanted to stop by and ask if you've heard back from Doctor Scott in regards to interviewing for your fellowship program."

"No, not yet, but I'm hopeful. In fact I'm getting things together, so that I have a few complicated cases for her to review." Derek replied, excited at the thought of working with one of the most promising resident to come along in years.

"Derek…..about Doctor Scott," Richard began uncomfortably. "I think you should be aware, that I met her before leaving the hotel and she honestly almost gave me a heart attack."

"What… Why?" Derek asks confused. "Is there a problem?"

"No… No… It's just that….she looks enough like Lexie Grey that I thought I was seeing a ghost. I swear Derek… I've never seen anything like it." Richard said trying to explain how Doctor Scott's appearance had shaken him.

"You're kidding, right?" Derek chuckled while leaning forward, not really believing Richards description of the Fellowship candidate.

"No, I would never joke about something like this." He replied seriously. "This young woman could in all honestly been mistaken for Lexie's twin. Granted there are noticeable differences; she's younger about 23 or 24; her eyes are a light golden brown and of course she has a British accent. But the rest… the color of her hair, her height, and even her smile looks the same. It was pretty startling to meet her."

Realizing that Richard was telling the truth, Derek rubbed his face with his hands and sighed.

"Wow, I just don't know how to respond to this kind of information…. I mean I've heard stories about people that look like each other, even though they are not family; they're called doppelgangers."

Standing up Derek moved away from his desk to begin pacing. "Richard, according to her files she is an amazing Doctor and to have her accept our fellowship offer, would be a huge boon for our hospital." Stopping he faced Doctor Webber and asked, "What do I do? I really want this girl in our program, but I don't want it to be uncomfortable for her or anyone who knew Lexie."

"Well I guess the first thing we should do is wait to see if Doctor Scott's even interested in Grey Memorial's program." replied Richard, "If she is, then we set up a meeting before she arrives, with everyone that remembers Doctor Grey and explain the situation. Hopefully that will alleviate any uncomfortable situations that might occur. Of course the only wildcards would be Meredith and Mark; I'll let you deal with them."

Sighing, Derek wearily looked at Richard and thought, 'Fate can be such a fickle bitch.'


	17. Chapter 17: Trying to Find My Way

**Okay, so at the rate I'm going this story is going to have more than 20 chapters. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 17: Trying to Find My Way

Three days later, Derek Shepherd received notification from Doctor Hunt's receptionist that Allison Scott had accepted their interview request and would be arriving 3 days before her return flight to England. That meant she was already interviewing for several other fellowship programs around the country and leaving Grey Memorial as her last visit, which worried Derek that Doctor Scott was not really interested in his program. Before leaving the hospital for the night, he called in for an emergency meeting of the board in the morning and asked Doctor Hunt to attend, so that they could discuss Allison Scott's arrival. Forty-five minutes later, he pulled in front of their home in the woods and made his way inside only to be greeted by his three excited kids.

"Daddy!" yelled a 6 year old Zola and quickly made her way to the front door as fast as her crutches would let her; it always caused a lump in his throat whenever he thought of how fast the Spina Bifida had caused her spine to deteriorate. Swinging her up into his arms, he gave her a big hug and kiss before asking.

"How's my big girl today?" he asked cheerfully as he knelt down to pull her into his arms for a hug and kiss.

"I'm good Daddy. Ms. Green says I'm the best speller in my class and I get to represent the 1st grade for a spelling bee!" Zola announced proudly.

"That's awesome, ZoZo! You make sure to let me and Mommy know when it is and we'll take off from work to come." He said smiling at his brilliant daughter, then moved her to one arm to catch his 4 year old son, Christopher as he came running down the hall in stocking feet.

"Woah, there slugger! You know better than to run around the house without your slippers; the floors were just waxed yesterday." He gently chastised his giggling son, who looked exactly like him with black curly hair and sparkling blue eyes.

"But Daddy, it's like ice skating!" then wrapped his arms around Derek's neck and laughed when his daddy's whiskers tickled his face after getting a kiss. Letting go of his eldest kids, he stood up and took his youngest daughter from a smiling Meredith's arms.

"Hello my baby girl." He said smiling as 18 month old; Lexa rubbed her hands over his whiskers and yelled "Dada!" He blew raspberries on her tummy and watched her grey eyes crinkle in happiness before bringing her down to kiss the top of her soft brown hair; he always found it ironic that Lexa features became of mixture of Meredith's and her namesake, Lexie's the older she got. Moving the baby away from his chest he leaned in closer to give his wife a kiss.

"Hmm, I missed you." He murmured against her lips and felt her smile against his.

"It's only been an two hours, since I left the hospital silly." She giggled and kissed him back.

"I know, but I hardly saw you today. You and Bailey must have scheduled a lot of surgeries."

"Yeah, we were catching up on the surgeries pushed back due to the emergent patients from that tourist bus crashing yesterday and let me just say I'm wiped out.

"Well, let me help you get the rug rats to bed, then we can sit in the kitchen and talk while I eat dinner." He said before herding his little family up the stairs for their bedtime rituals. An hour later, everyone was snuggly tucked into bed and he was sitting at the table digging in to the roast beef and potatoes their live-in nanny and cook had made before leaving for her day off. Tomorrow, they would be responsible for getting their kids to school and the day care.

"Meredith, I need to talk about something." Derek said pushing his plate away.

"Okay…. What's up?" She asks noticing his worried tone.

"Well, I have a young doctor flying in to interview for my fellowship program and I've been told by a very creditable source, that she…." Derek stops trying to think of a good way to tell Meredith about Doctor Scott.

"She's what, Derek?" pushes Meredith.

"Mere, she looks like Lexie." Derek says gently. "I've called a board meeting for tomorrow morning to discuss Doctor Scott's arrival. That way we can let the people who knew Lexie aware of the situation."

Meredith remained in stunned silence until Derek asked. "Mere… sweetheart, please talk to me… are you going to be okay with this?"

"How old is she? Is she the same age as Lexie?" she whispered.

"No, Doctor Scott is younger." Derek answered. "According to her files she's only 24 and has already completed her residency at St George's Hospital in England."

"So she looks like a younger version of my sister….the sister who I tried to ignore for almost a year after she began to work here." Meredith said hesitantly and looked out the window.

"Yeah, I guess. Until we actually meet her, I'm not sure what to expect." He said.

Meredith just nodded her head and remained silent while she continued to look out the window toward the city lights twinkling below.

"Derek, do you know when I last spoke with my sister?" She asks.

"No… was it a few days before the crash?" he asks, not sure why she jumped from meeting Doctor Scott to Lexie.

"No." she snorts before angrily wiping a tear off her cheek. "It was six weeks after the crash on her 28th birthday." Turning to face him, she continues, "That was the night I got so drunk, you had to bail me out of jail." Derek looked confused but let her continue.

"It was after we had come home, you had gone to bed and somehow I ended up in the attic on her bed." Meredith feels tightness in her throat as her eyes fill with tears. "She came to me, Derek…. I mean… I know it was probably just a dream or a drunken hallucination, but she came to me to say good bye. There was no pain or blood on her face from the crash….she looked so beautiful. That's how I picture Lexie, every time I think about her." She takes a deep breath then gives him a wobbly smile.

"So thank you for the warning about Doctor Scott, but I'll be okay. My sister is right here." she says and taps a finger to her temple. "Your fellowship prospect is just someone who resembles her."

Derek pulls her into his arms and holds her tight before whispering, "You are a remarkable woman, Meredith Grey. I love you so much and I know for a fact that your sister did too." Getting up they walked hand in hand and shut off the lights before making their way to their bedroom.

Flying into Seattle's SeaTac Airport two weeks later was a bitter sweet experience for the young woman walking fast yet confidently through the airport. This city was the home of her birth, the place where she began her life as Alexandra Grey and then died to become Allison Scott. Reaching her rental car, Allison looked up at the overcast skies and inhaled the familiar rain washed scent before smiling and getting inside. Sitting there for a few moments, she contemplated on what to do, since her interview at Grey Memorial wasn't for a few more hours and it was too early to check into her hotel. Looking down at her damp business suit, she decided a quick trip to a mall was going to be necessary before heading to the hospital.

An hour and a half later after getting her hair styled and changing into the new business suit she had purchased at Bloomingdales, Allison headed toward the 2nd floor elevator so she could get her car from the lower level parking lot. Suddenly, she could feel a rumbling beneath her feet and could see the floor of the mall collapse as an explosion ripped it apart causing a wall of fire to shoot straight up then rush out toward the surrounding levels. Seeing the wall of fire heading toward her and a stunned woman holding her baby, Allison grabbed them both and literally dragged them behind a wide pillar before instinctively covering them with her body. She felt the heat wave ripple around the pillar as the fire rushed past, but could tell that it had protected them from being flash burned. Pulling back slightly, Allison looked down to the crying baby clutched in the mother's protective embrace, then looked up to see the young woman's eyes widen in surprise as a split second later the floor beneath them shifted, then dropped causing them to fall into the darkness below.


	18. Chapter 18: No Harm

**To all of my Reviewers... Thank you all so much and I'm very happy that you are enjoying this story!**

* * *

Chapter 18: No Harm

Meanwhile inside Grey Memorial Hospital, the building shook and people yelped in fear as the explosion at the Mall was felt around the city. Rushing into the ER Doctor Owen Hunt turned on the news to see the first horrifying images of a partially collapsed Mall located only a few miles away from their hospital. Going into full Trauma mode, he began barking orders to the Nurses, Interns, Residents and Attending's in preparation for the onslaught of injured people that would be arriving from the Mall. Running into each OR, he checked on his people to let them know about the explosion so that they could finish up their procedures and get ready. Doctor Derek Shepherd had just completed a craniotomy when they had felt the explosion, so he quickly closed up the patient and was scrubbing out when Doctor Hunt arrived.

"What the hell was that? Earthquake?" Derek asked Owen as he dried off his arms.

"No a massive explosion just ripped through a Mall a few miles away and we're going to get hit with multiple victims." He answered and watched as Derek yanked the surgical gown off his scrubs before throwing it in the laundry bin.

"Damn it! I'm supposed to have an interview with Doctor Scott in a half an hour; she's only here to till tomorrow morning."

"Sorry Shep….I know how interested you are in this young woman for your fellowship program. Maybe she can come back tomorrow morning before her flight leaves." Owen said running back to the ER.

Going to the phone, he called the visitors desk to leave a message for Doctor Scott explaining the situation and asked that she call him later to set up another interview time. Hanging up, he sighed and made his way through the people rushing in the hallways as they prepared for the trauma patients to arrive. Reaching the ER, he pulled on a trauma gown and felt hands begin to fasten the ties; looking over his shoulder, Meredith gave him a sad smile. Turning around he wrapped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head before they both headed outside to wait for the first Ambulance to arrive. It was going to be a long day.

At the Mall, Allison had been able to shift her body during the floors collapse, so that she absorbed most of the impact when they landed on the rubble down on the next level. The young mother had been briefly knocked unconscious and appeared to have a dislocated shoulder, but otherwise looked okay. Allison quickly checked for injuries on the frightened and screaming baby in her arms, but he appeared to be unharmed except for coughing on the cement dust filling the air. With her enhanced eyesight, Allison could see outside light coming in through a smashed outside window 20 feet away. Placing the baby in his mother's uninjured arm, Allison took off her scarf and tied it around them to make a makeshift baby sling and then guided then toward the light until they could feel fresh air.

"You need to get away from the building! Head toward the outside parking lot, there should be rescuers arriving soon." Allison directed.

"Wait… what about you?" the woman asked confused about what just happened.

"I'm a Doctor; I'm going back to help more people!" Allison explained and then rushed back inside.

Making her way through the twisted metal and concrete debris, Allison yelled through the hazy light "There's a way out over here!" and began directing the mobile survivors toward the outside before going deeper into the damaged mall. The cement dust was beginning to settle, so she could now see the huge smoking hole near the center of the mall and knew it was deep enough to reach the lower parking lot. All around the hole lay the charred bodies of people caught in the initial explosion and flash fire; she knew there was nothing she could do for them and began moving away from the hole toward the sound of someone yelling for help. Reaching an area where the 2nd story walkway had collapsed, she found an older gentleman partially trapped under a metal beam and easily lifted it off of him while assessing the damage. Seeing that his right lower tibia had a compound fracture; Allison gently ripped the sleeve off of his jacket and wrapped it around his leg to staunch the blood flow. He screamed in pain, but had begged her to help his wife who was lying a few feet away in pool of blood. Making her way to her side, Allison could see brain matter mixed in the blood and knew that the woman had died instantly from falling debris. Going back to the man she was about to lift him up when a powerful light temporarily blinded her and a fireman rushed to her side.

"Ma'am, you need to get outside. It's not safe in here." He said trying to pull her away from the injured man.

"No, I'm a Doctor…. I can help." She replied, checking the man's pulse.

"Ma'am, we're going to get this guy out of here. Please come with us." Demanded another fireman as they put her patient on a stretcher to carry him out, "if you are a Doctor there are a lot of people outside that need your help, the ambulances are just now arriving to do Triage." Allison nodded her head in agreement and began to follow them out when she heard a third fireman calling for assistance. Running to the sound of his voice, she found him huddled over a boy, who looked about 12 years old; he had been impaled in the chest by a large piece of glass. Moving to his side, she looked at the fireman and said, "I'm a Doctor." He nodded in understanding; happy to see someone who could help him stabilize the trapped boy. Looking down, she could see that the glass had pierced the boy's small chest at an angle from his shoulder toward his heart but couldn't tell how extensive the damage was; opening the fireman's medical bag, she began pulling out pressure gauze so that she could pack the wound around the glass.

"We need to get him cut him away from the large piece of glass without moving the one that's in his body. Right now it's keeping him from bleeding out. I'm going to start an IV, but you need to go get more help." She watched him nod in agreement and head outside. Hearing a moan, she looked back down to see that he was starting to wake up and needed him to stay as still and calm as possible.

"Shhh, I need you to lie as still as possible you were hurt in an accident. Can you tell me your name?" she asked wiping the cement dust off of his face. He moaned again but whispered "Sam", she smiled and continued, "Hey Sam, my name is Allison, can you tell me your last name, who were you with?"

"Kingston," he slurred trying to fight going back to sleep, but he hurt everywhere. "Here… with my friends…..Nick… and Mike… we…. we skipped school…. New game ….. Out."

"Ahh skipping out on school aren't you a sneaky fellow." She joked trying to keep thing light, yet all the while quietly monitoring his stats.

"Y..You sound like the D..Doctor." He whispered.

"Well aren't you a clever boy… actually I am a Doctor." She chuckled and watched him struggle to focus on her.

"N..n…no your accent… you sound like the D…Doctor from the t..tv show D..Doctor W…Who."

"Oh, the one where he's a time traveler in a blue box." she said realizing that he was identifying her British accent to a Sci-Fi show that was popular with kids all over the world. "Yes… well we do sound similar." Hearing rushing feet headed in her direction, she knew help would be here soon and then they could get him to a hospital.

"Sam, the firemen are coming to get you out of here and then we're going to get you to a hospital. I need you to be brave, okay?"

"Kaaaay," he whispered then passed out.

Fifteen minutes later they had cut the boy away from the larger piece of glass and carried him to a nearby ambulance, while she held the glass chard steady. Seeing that the medics were about to protest her getting inside with the boy she just shouted "I'm a doctor and I'm coming with you!" and began helping the medic prep him for his arrival at the hospital.

"Which hospital are we going too?" she asked yelling over the siren.

"The closet hospital is Grey Memorial, it's 10 minutes out!" he yelled back, taking in her dirty clothes and hair. She was covered in a layer of white cement dust and had blood streaked across her cheek and on her clothes.

"Where you at the Mall when it exploded?" he asked, then watched her nod in acknowledgement. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I was outside when it happened." She lied; not wanting to explain how she had escaped injury, then realized he had said they were headed to Grey Memorial. 'This is not how I wanted the day to go.' She thought and mentally began preparing herself to see the people she had once called her family.

Within moments, the ambulance screeched to a halt and the doors flew open to reveal a multitude of faces in yellow trauma gowns; jumping down she focused on the job and began rattling off the boy's vital signs and information about his injury, while she continued to keep pressure on his wound. Rushing into the room, Doctor Hunt took in the young dust covered woman applying pressure and moved to take charge of the situation.

"I'm Doctor Hunt; you need to move out of the way so my people can work!" He demanded and made his way over to the boy to push her out of the way.

"I don't think so! He's my patient and I'm going to see this through!" she argued and stood her ground. Stunned that she was arguing with him, he took a step back and really looked at her for the first time; his heart jumped for a moment when he realized that underneath the dust and blood, he was looking into the face that still haunts him in his dreams. The face of Lexie Grey….the young woman he had accidentally killed by hiring a mechanically troubled airline.

"Doctor Hunt?" she asked watching as his face went white. Her British accent sparked a memory that Doctor Shepherd was supposed to interview a young doctor from England that looked like Lexie. "Are you Doctor Allison Scott?" he asked as his face relaxed in relief when he realized she wasn't a ghost.

"Yes, I am. Will you allow me privileges?" Allison replied, happy that he had gotten over his initial shock of seeing her face. It would seem Richard Webber had pre-warned the Attending's about her appearance. "I'll be more than willing to help wherever you need me if you allow me to assist with this boy."

"Yes of course, we'll take any help we can get. But I need you to get cleaned up first." Looking toward one of the Interns he directed. "Take Doctor Scott to the Attending's locker room to get showered and get her a pair of scrubs and some shoes." Nodding the Intern quickly made her way to the door and waited to be followed.

"Go, with Doctor Ryan, and then meet me in OR2 in 15 minutes." Allison nodded in agreement and followed the intern.

Exactly 7 minutes later she was out of the shower and into a clean pair of scrubs; the industrious intern had even found a pair clean socks and shoes to wear. Walking out of the Attending's locker room, she began looking for the intern while pulling her hair into a ponytail. Not paying attention, she bumped into another body and quickly steadied them before they fell to the floor.

"Oh I'm so sorry," she began until the familiar scent of soap and cologne made her stop. Slowly she raised her eyes from her hands clasping the muscled forearms, up to his chest and broad shoulders until she was looking into the blue eyes of the man she loved. Mark's expression was one of shock and disbelief, which lead her to think that not everyone had been told of her arrival.

"Doctor Scott, they're waiting for you." The intern called out.

Trying to remain calm and keep up the charade of not knowing who he was; Allison gave him a small but impersonal smile and pulled away from his arms to follow the intern down the hall. Reaching the doorway, she gave a quick glance back to see that he was still watching her but was now leaning against the wall half bent over like he was having trouble breathing.

'Damn it! I knew I should have stayed away!' she thought angrily to herself; still following the intern to OR 2. Mark's face had said it all; she had just reopened a closed wound.


	19. Chapter 19: A Moment Away

Chapter 19: A Moment Away

Lexie's name froze on his lips as he watched her walk away. Feeling light headed, he leaned against the wall and tried to catch his breath while trying to understand what he had just seen. Logically, he knew that the woman he just ran into couldn't be Lexie since he had been with her when she had died 5 years ago. But for that brief moment when they touched, his body had surged with a jolt of awareness that he had only felt when he was around her. Mark pushed against the wall determined to follow her, but was stopped by a nurse telling him that everyone was needed in the ER to assist with Emergent patients coming in from the Mall. Nodding in agreement, he made his way to the ER and pushed the doors open to find it filled with injured patients placed around the room in an organized chaos. Quickly putting on a trauma gown, he made his way inside and could see that Bailey was working on a young woman with lacerations all over her face and arms.

"Doctor Bailey, why don't I take over suturing, while you get the glass out?" he suggested coming up behind her.

"Doctor Sloan, what are you doing here? You weren't supposed to get back till this weekend?" She asked, surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Well with Hurricane Felix heading toward California, we decided to come back early to avoid airport closures. Besides we did the whole Disneyland and Beach thing for two weeks; there's only so much I can handle with two lesbian women an year old girl."

"Did Sofia have fun?" Bailey smiled.

"Oh Yeah…. She had a blast, up until she threw up all over her princess costume after riding Space Mountain. But she was better the next day and we avoided the crazy rides….. She wants Zola to come with us next time." He chuckled as he meticulously sutured the cuts on the woman's face.

"Hmm, I guess that would depend on how her legs are doing?" Bailey said seriously.

"Yeah, well we'll see what happens." He remained quiet for a few moments then said. "Bailey, I've got to tell you something and I hope you don't think I'm going crazy, but I've got to tell someone."

"Okay, Sloan just spit it out." She said impatiently, knowing by his tone this is a personal issue… which she hates talking about.

"I…. umm saw Lexie in the hallway just outside the Attending's locker room a few minutes ago." He said hesitantly, "and I swear to you I have not been drinking, so I know it's not a hallucination…. I just….I just don't know what to think."

Miranda stopped working on her patient and looked up into Mark Sloan's sad and confused eyes. Losing Lexie Grey, the love of his life, had nearly destroyed this man and it had taken months of therapy for him to accept her death. Once he had recovered from his injuries, he had broken up with Julia to spend more time with Sofia and then focused the rest of his energy on his burn clinic. In fact, she hadn't seen him with a woman since the accident and had often wondered if he was trying to remain faithful to Lexie's memory.

"Oh, that's right you weren't here when the board held a meeting about a prospective Neuro Fellow visiting today with Derek Shepherd. According to Doctor Webber, who had met her at the boards in San Francisco, Doctor Scott's resemblance to Lexie is uncanny. So they all warned us in preparation of her visit." She said and once again looked down to work on her patient, but minutes later Meredith was shouting for Bailey to help with a person coming in with a damaged liver.

After hearing Bailey's explanation, he was relieved that he wasn't going crazy and hoped he could formally meet Doctor Scott to find out if what he had sensed around her was merely a physical reaction to her looking like Lexie or if there was a deeper meaning. Mentally shaking off his thoughts, Mark yelled for an Intern to help pull the glass out of his patients arm and focused on the job at hand.

* * *

Meanwhile, Miranda Bailey had met Meredith in OR 4 and they were working on a patient whose liver had been perforated during the explosion at the Mall.

"Was that Mark assisting you on the woman with multiple lacerations?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, they came home early to avoid traveling problems from Hurricane Felix." Miranda stated. "He… umm ran into Shepherd's Fellowship prospect, Doctor Scott and she …. Well….freaked him out. He thought he was seeing Lexie's ghost." She finished, worriedly watching her former students reaction.

"Oh, she's here? I thought Derek would have called her to cancel due to the Mall situation." Meredith replied calmly as she continued to work on the patient.

"Meredith, did you hear me….she looks enough like Lexie that Mark actually thought it was her. How can you be so calm about this? I mean if it was me and I saw another woman with my sister's face…. I'd be… I don't know…. worried she was a pod person from invasion of the body snatchers." Looking up at Meredith, she could see that behind the mask, her eyes were crinkled in amusement.

"Pod people, really Doctor Bailey?" Meredith chuckled.

"I like Science Fiction, okay! So when I hear stuff like this… it just makes my mind go there." Bailey huffed defensively. "But seriously are you okay meeting this woman?"

Meredith stops to think for a moment before answering. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I mean, I've known about her visit for a few weeks but I've never really considered my reaction to seeing her for the first time. Realistically, I know that she's a different person. But a part of me that doesn't want real life, wishes she was Lexie and that she's been missing for five years because she lost her memory in the crash or some other made for TV movie that has a happy ending where my sister didn't die." Looking over to see the tears in Bailey's eyes, she continues.

"So you see my mind can go there too. Especially since there wasn't a body to bury….." Meredith stops again and sighs heavily. "I can only hope that when I meet Doctor Scott…. I don't break down and start crying, because that would be really embarrassing." Blood suddenly squirts up onto her gown and the monitors go crazy as the patient's heart begins to become erratic.

"Crap, I've got a bleeder! I need more suction here!" Doctor Bailey jumps in and they both refocus their efforts to save the patient.

* * *

A few hours later, Owen Hunt was standing next to Allison Scott as they scrubbed out of surgery on the young boy she had come in with. He was pretty impressed with this young doctor's surgical ability, not only had she skillfully maintained control over the boy's bleeders, but she had also repaired the tear that the glass had made into his heart. If he didn't know better, he would have thought she was here for the cardiothoracic program instead of Neuro.

"Good Job, Doctor Scott! You may have just saved that boy's life…. I could certainly tell that St George's teaching program offered you a well-rounded education in regards to working on the whole body instead of just one specialty." He said and grabbed a towel to dry off his hands.

"Thank you, Doctor Hunt." She said and flashed him a smile that looked so much like Lexie that his heart almost stopped.

"Umm, Doctor Scott…. I think I should warn you that there may be a few people in this hospital who appear uncomfortable around you."

"What? I don't understand…I haven't met anyone in this hospital except you… why would anyone be uncomfortable?" Allison asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Well, it's umm… just that you look like a young doctor who used to work here and when she was killed…. It was….bad. Doctor Grey was well loved and people took her loss hard." Doctor Hunt said trying to explain.

"Oh…..wait, your residents were talking about a Lexie Grey the night before our boards, they said the hospital's name was changed in her honor." She replied, once again giving the appropriate response to something she already knew. "Do I really look like her?"

Doctor Hunt looked uncomfortable but answered, "Well actually…. Yes. I mean there are quite a few differences….you're younger, the eye color is different and of course you have an accent, but when you smile...you look just like her."

"Well….if it's that upsetting, maybe I should just leave now and look at one of the other Fellowship programs, I've been offered." She said pulling the scrub cap off of her head.

"No, don't leave!" Owen said putting a hand on her shoulder. "It was not my intention to scare you off; I just wanted you to be aware of the situation, in case you notice someone staring at you."

"Alright I'll stay and thanks for the warning. That does explain something that happened earlier." She replied and watched him sigh in relief.

"Why don't we head back down to the ER, there are probably a lot more emergent patients arriving from the Mall." He suggested and followed her back to the ER.

A few minutes later they pulled on new trauma gowns and entered the ER to find most of the beds filled and more ambulances arriving with new patients. Nodding to the young surgeon to continue helping were she could, Hunt went off to find Doctor Kepner and help her set up a mobile trauma room in the Clinic. Undecided on where to start, she glanced around the room until she saw an Intern struggling to put in a central line in a badly burned middle aged man.

"Here let me show you what to do." She said and began giving him directions, so he would know what to do the next time. After getting the central line started, she gave the moaning man morphine and began her examination of his injuries. She found that besides the burns covering his face, arms and chest; his lungs had decreased breath sounds due to smoke inhalation. Moving to the man's head, she began giving the intern, whose name was Doctor Fraser, directions on how to intubate the patient. Within minutes, the man's struggling vital signs improved and they began debriding the burns.

Unbeknownst to Allison, her arrival in the ER had not gone unnoticed and everyone was now aware that Doctor Shepherd's prospective fellow, was indeed Lexie Grey's doppelganger. In one corner of the ER, Alex Karev kept glancing towards her and then started humming the bars to the Twilight Zone theme song. Across the aisle, Callie Torres began muttering a prayer in Spanish, while she was splinting an arm. Jackson Avery had stood next to his patient with his mouth open and just stared until an intern started calling his name and he refocused his efforts on his patient. And a few beds away, Arizona Robbins looked up from comforting a small child to see the face of a woman she had last seen while flying on a doomed airplane. She gasped in disbelief and felt a chill race through her body as if someone had walked on her grave.

Suddenly EMT's rushed in with an older woman with a severe head trauma. Pulling off her gloves, Allison gave the intern orders to continue debriding the man's burns and made her way to the EMT's side to check the woman's eyes. Seeing that one of her pupils were blown due to subdural hematoma, Allison began yelling for instruments that would temporarily help alleviate the pressure inside the woman's brain so that they could get her into surgery before there was permanent damage. Completing the fix, she sighed as the woman began to stabilize.

"Doctor Scott, I presume?" Allison looked up at the familiar voice to see her brother-in law, Derek Shepherd smiling at her and nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"Hey Allison, it's good to see you again." called another familiar voice, as Doctor Shane Ross walked up behind his mentor.

"Shane, it's nice to finally see a familiar face." She said, giving him a brilliant friendly smile.

Derek took in a sharp intake of breath; Richard had been right to warn him about Doctor Scott's appearance…. She really did look like his little sister, Lexie. Having her here for this visit was going to be harder on them than he thought.

"Doctor Ross, can you please take the patient to CT and have an OR prepped for surgery? We'll meet you there in a few minutes." Derek asked and watched as Shane nodded and began pushing the patient toward the elevator.

Turning back to his Fellowship prospect, he held out his arm so that they could shake hands in introduction.

"Doctor Scott, Sorry about the crazy welcome you received here at Grey Memorial Hospital, I'm Doctor Derek Shepherd head of the Neurosurgery department." He said and began walking her to the elevator, so that they could meet Ross in the CT lab. "My assistant was supposed to call and cancel our appointment due to the accident, when did you arrive?"

"Actually, I arrived several hours ago in an ambulance carrying a 12 year old boy, who had been impaled at the Mall with a large piece of glass." She said turning to face Derek as they got into the elevator.

"You were on the scene?" he asked in surprise.

"Umm, well….I was actually inside the Mall when the explosion occurred." She began, but what interrupted when he grabbed her arm and yelled. "What!"

"Yes, I had arrived earlier this morning and couldn't check into my hotel, so I stopped at the Mall to go shopping. I was just about to leave when the explosion hit and since I wasn't hurt, I stayed to help the victims." She continued.

"Oh my God…. Are you okay? You should get checked out…." He began as he began to worry that she had been unknowingly injured.

"No!" she quickly jumped in, knowing that an examination would be a quick way for them to realize that she was different. "I'm okay…. I was far enough away from the blast that I wasn't injured. It just scared the crap out of me and I'm sure later once everything calms down, I'll start to feel the effects."

Derek watched her face to make sure she was telling him the truth and nodded his acceptance before sighing in relief. 'Unbelievable,' he thought to himself, 'she wasn't even here for a few hours and she almost died…. Maybe this hospital really is cursed, just like Cristina says.'

"Well, I'm very happy you were uninjured. Let's take a look at the patients head CT so we can see what we're up against and then I would very much like it you can help me come up with a plan for her surgery."

"I'd like that very much, Doctor Shepherd." She relied excited to once again be working with her beloved brother-in law and mentor on a complex brain surgery. Her day had just gotten brighter.


	20. Chapter 20: Do This Right

**Sorry this chapter took so long...I got half way through the chapter and got writers block. Once it passed, I re-read what I wrote and didn't like it, so I started over. Hope it turned out okay this time. ;)**

* * *

Chapter 20: Do This Right

Finishing up, they both stepped back from the OR table and sighed in relief after a successful conclusion to the surgery; they had saved the patient.

"Very nice, Doctor Scott!" Derek said impressed with the young Neurosurgeon's amazing skills.

"Thank you, Doctor Shepherd. It's been a real honor to work with you." She smiled back at him behind her mask.

For Allison, it had felt like coming home working with Derek again; five years ago she was the resident he had handpicked to learn Neuro but now she was the teacher. When they had originally reviewed the patient's CT scans, Derek had planned to do a standardized approach to fixing the Subdural Hematoma, but she had suggested a newer one being used at St George that was less evasive and would provide a quicker recovery time for the patient.

For Derek, it had been comfortable; almost familiar to work with Doctor Scott and after seeing her perform that complicated procedure, he was more determined than ever to offer her a position in Grey Memorial's Fellowship program. Of course he would have to talk to the rest of the board members for approval and knew that her strong resemblance to Lexie would be a negative factor in offering her a position, especially for Meredith and Mark.

Returning to the scrub room they Doctors removed their caps and gowns and began to clean up from the surgery, taking a towel Derek dried his hands and turned to face the young resident.

"I'm sure by now you have visited several of the best Neuro programs this country has available and each of them have probably offered anything and everything in the hopes that you will accept their job offer…..so I'm just going to ask you, Doctor Scott. What type of fellowship program are you looking for?"

Allison stopped drying her arms and continued to watch the nurses clean up the OR for a few moments before speaking.

"I want to be admitted into a program where I can be challenged, not coddled like a prized thoroughbred." She began turning to face him with her arms crossed over her chest and her head cocked slightly. "I would like to work in a hospital that is more interested in helping a patient to survive than receiving accolades or an award created by a pompous arse." She watches him chuckle and then continues.

"I want a program where I can teach what I know to others, yet still learn something new by researching innovative ways to treat a patient or adaptation of a procedure. I want to be the Doctor that a patient comes too when everyone else says no it can't be done and be backed by a program that's willing to accept those risks. Money and fame are not important to me, Doctor Shepherd and I want to be in a fellowship program that will always put the patient first."

Derek smiles knowing she is definitely a person he wants on his team. "Well then, Doctor Scott we'll have a lot to discuss before you head home tomorrow. Why don't we take a quick break in the cafeteria, before we back to the ER to see if they need any more help?"

As they head out of the OR, the two surgeons continue to talk about Grey's fellowship program; it becomes clear to Allison that Derek is trying very hard to convince her to stay. But unlike the other Neuro Heads, who only told her what she wanted to hear; she knew from personal experience that Derek would follow through with his promises. It would be so easy to accept the fellowship offer and once again be surrounded by the family and friends she had left behind; to finally come home. But could she keep up this painful lie? How could she possibly handle the next two years working with the people she had known in another life and continue to pretend she was someone else? The most painful thing about returning to this hospital would be to work around her sister again; it was selfish to think that coming here wouldn't affect Meredith. Would she accept Lexie's, Allison Scott persona as a new person or would seeing her face everyday remind her of the little sister she had lost in that plane crash? Mentally shaking off the dark thoughts and questions for another time she refocused on listening to Derek's fellowship pitch as they stood in front of the elevators.

When the doors opened she watched as Derek stopped mid-sentence and smiled in happiness when it revealed his wife, Cristina Yang and Miranda Bailey standing inside. Meredith returned his smile, but her eyes widened in shock when Allison followed him onto the elevator. Making his way to her side, he gave her a supportive hug then a quick kiss on her lips before beginning the introductions.

"Doctor Scott, I'd like you to meet my lovely wife, Doctor Meredith Grey and Doctor Miranda Bailey, both are General Surgeons and Cristina Yang, who is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon."

"Ladies, this is Doctor Allison Scott; my fellowship candidate visiting from England." Derek said completing his introductions.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all and…" Allison began politely but was interrupted by Cristina.

"Holy Crap, you really do look like 3!" Cristina exclaimed, "But with a British accent."

Embarrassed by Yang's outburst, Miranda elbowed her out of the way and stepped forward to fix Yang's blunder. She was just as surprised by how much Allison Scott resembled Lexie Grey, but she was going to make damn sure that it was not going to let it affect how she was treated in this hospital.

"Welcome to Grey Memorial Hospital." Miranda stepped forward smiling at the young woman. "Please excuse, Doctor Yang's lack of filters on her mouth; she tends to say things without thinking first."

Allison gave her an understanding smile and could tell that Cristina was actually embarrassed by her outburst. It was good to see that short commanding woman still had the ability to control the people around her, including the unruly attending. Looking away from the two women, Allison refocused on Meredith, who had been standing frozen by Derek's side watching the scene in shocked silence.

Meredith felt Derek nudge her forward from behind and she mentally shook off the stupor that had locked up her brain. The young woman standing in front of her really did look like her sister, yet not exactly like her. Of course there were the obvious differences; Lexie would have been 33 on her next birthday, this girl looked to be about 24 or 25. Doctor Scott's eyes were an odd golden brown color, where her sister's eyes had been the color of her favorite dark chocolate candy bar. And of course then there was the most obvious difference, Doctor Scott looked perfect… her hair, the flawless skin, even the perfect teeth…. She looked like a model. Lexie had been a natural beauty, but like most residents she sometime looked…messy, like she just didn't have time to run a comb through her hair or put makeup on. Realizing that she had been staring at her far too long, Meredith took a deep breath and offered Doctor Scott a smile.

"Doctor Scott, I'm sorry for staring…it's just…Cristina's right you look like….." Meredith stops when her throat tightens up with tears.

"Your sister, Lexie Grey?" Allison says completing Meredith's explanation. Four sets of eyes swing in her direction in shock.

"Who… told you about Lexie?" Derek asked, a little angry that someone had discussed his family with her.

"Oh.. Well… I met some of your residents the night before the boards and they were gossiping about the Attending's that work here." Giving Meredith a sheepish look, Allison continued. "Your personal life seems to be one of their favorite topics to gossip about."

"Oh, they are so going to be doing rectal exams for a month." Meredith mumbles loudly between clenched teeth, but still hears Bailey and Yang chuckle at her threat.

"Hmm, maybe that's why they call you Medusa?" Allison asks, and then watches as her sister gives a slightly evil smile about her nickname.

"Nice." Allison snickers before continuing, "Anyway out of curiosity, I had asked about the hospital's name change and they told me that it was a way to honor your sister, Doctor Lexie Grey, who had been killed in a plane crash." Facing Meredith, she mentally cringes at her next lie.

"I had no idea, that I resembled her until Doctor Hunt mentioned it when we met during surgery earlier today." Allison gave Meredith a look of sympathy. "I'm so sorry if my presence reminds you of your loss."

Meredith smiled at her and wiped away a stray tear that had rolled down her cheek before saying, "Thank you… I'm not going to lie; seeing you was a shock, but I'll eventually get used to it and I'm sure that if Lexie was still here, she would think this whole situation pretty cool." Then Meredith did the unexpected and held out her hand to shake. "So why don't we start this conversation the right way."

"Welcome to Grey Memorial Hospital, Doctor Scott. It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Doctor Grey, but you can call me Meredith." She says as the young doctor's cool hand returns her greeting.

"Thank you, Meredith, please call me Allison" She said happy that her sister had accepted her new persona.

Reaching their destination, they all exited the elevator and entered the cafeteria. Paying for cup of hot tea, she sat down with the rest of their little group and pretended to drink it while listening to them discuss the Mall explosion and some of the trauma victims that had come through the hospital today.

"I still can't believe what happened today; I was just at that Mall last week to buy some new shoes for Tucker." Miranda said still in disbelief, "Have the police discovered what caused the explosion?"

"Not yet… and since they haven't ruled out terrorist attack, the whole city is under a curfew." Cristina said before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"You were there, Allison. What do you think happened today?" Derek asked and she watched as all eyes turned to look at her.

"Oh my God! You were there today?" Meredith asked wide eyed.

"Umm… yes. It was only 9 o'clock when my flight arrived this morning and it was too early to check into my hotel or come here for my interview. So I stopped at the Mall to shop a bit…..I had just finished up and I was about to get onto an elevator to retrieve my rental car from the lower level, when the explosion ripped through the floor in the middle of the Mall. The floor collapsed and a huge fireball shot up and then out through all of the levels, the people who survived the initial explosion around the crater were then killed in the flash fire. I was far enough away from the initial blast and ducked inside a store to avoid the falling debris and fire. After it was over, I crawled out and began assisting the injured." Allison answered as she looked down at her cooling tea; once again slightly changing the story so that it explained how she had remained uninjured.

Looking up, she could see that the Doctors were leaning forward in their seats to hear the rest of her story.

"As for your question Doctor Shepherd, I personally think that the explosion was caused by a break in one of the natural gas pipes running under the Mall. The fire ball lasted far too long for it to have come from a bomb."

The Doctor's all sat back in stunned silence at the end of her story; they were amazed that this young doctor seemed to be unfazed by how close she had come to dying today. Suddenly the silence is shattered when Shepherd's pager goes off and he looks down to see that the ER is paging. Standing up he looks over to Doctor Scott and gives her a tired smile. "You ready for the next round of incoming?"

She returns his smile, "Always." She says and follows him back to the ER.


	21. Chapter 21: No Place to Go

**Sorry for the shorter chapter... I promise the next one is going to be much longer!**

* * *

Chapter 21: No Place to Go

Later that evening, the mad rush of emergent patients was over. Those that would need additional surgeries or recovery time were now safely upstairs to be monitored by the night shift and the less injured patients were sent home. The exhausted Doctors and Nurses began to filter into on-call rooms or go home for much needed sleep before they could begin again tomorrow. Saying good bye to Derek and Meredith, Allison had returned to the Resident's lounge to change, but then remembered that she didn't have any clean clothes to change into. In fact, everything she had brought with her on this trip including her luggage and purse had been destroyed in the Mall explosion. Sighing she began to search through her dirty clothes and found she had stuffed a fifty dollar bill into her pocket after her purchase from Bloomingdales.

"Well at least I have enough to go get a drink." She mumbled to herself and plopped down on the couch to close her eyes. As the lounge door opens, Allison hears a gasp and opens her eyes to see a familiar red head standing in the doorway with her mouth hanging open.

"Uh… Uh….Lexie?" April Kepner whispers, still standing frozen by the door.

"No, I'm Allison Scott. I'm a Neuro resident visiting this hospital for a possible fellowship." She watches April visibly relax once she realizes she's not seeing a ghost.

"Oh… that's right… with everything that happened today, I forgot you were coming today." April comes into the lounge and walks over to the couch to introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm one of the trauma surgeons, April Kepner. Sorry about me getting you confused… it's just you look like…." She hesitates for a moment not sure on how to proceed.

"I know. I look like Lexie Grey." Allison says once again completing the answer.

April chuckles and sits down next to her on the couch. "I bet you've been told that a lot today."

"Yeah, just a little bit." Allison says, sighing a little. Then an idea pops in her head and she cocks her head to look at April. "Doctor Kepner, do you have some extra clothes I can borrow for the night?"

"Umm…. Sure, I always keep some in my car in case of emergencies." April replies; confused about why she would need clothes.

"I'll explain later over drinks at the bar across the street, Okay?" Allison asks and watches as April shrugs then nods her head in agreement.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the two ladies cross the street and enter the Emerald City Bar or to the locals "Joe's Bar". Sitting up at the Bar, Mark Sloan looks up from his glass of Scotch to see April Kepner walk in with Lexie's doppelganger, Allison Scott and watches as Kepner pulls her over to a table where Avery, Karev and Wilson are sitting. Suddenly, the sound of a breaking glass pulls Marks attention to the bartender.

"Holy Crap!" yelps a startled Joe. "That was….that looked like Doctor Grey…. I mean Lexie Grey. But she's… you know … dead, right?"

"Yes, Lexie's dead." Mark sadly replied, while taking a sip of his alcohol and watched Joe start to pick up the glass he broke. "That my friend is someone who looks a lot like her."

"A lot like her… she could be her freaking twin." Joe says and they both watch Allison excuse herself from the table and make her way to the pay phone near the restroom. Ten minutes later, Allison makes her way to the bar and sits down on a stool to place her drink order with Joe.

"Could I get a glass of red wine and large tequila with lime, please?" she asks.

"Uhh, I need some ID first. You look a little young to be drinking." Joe says.

"Seriously?" she asks, surprised by Joe's request. "I don't have my ID; I just lost everything in that Mall explosion."

"I'll vouch for her, Joe." Mark says, and then turns his blue eyes to really get a good look at the woman standing next to him. He can see now that she does indeed look like Lexie when she first arrived as an intern, yet not exactly like her.

"This is Doctor Allison Scott and if she's old enough to do surgery, she's definitely old enough to drink." Joe nods and gets her drink ready.

She had seen him sitting at the bar when she approached and had spent those moments absorbing the changes that had occurred over the last five years to the man she loves. His hair was still thick and curly, but had gotten greyer; he once again had a beard with a mustache and his face had a few more lines, but he still looked the same. God, he was still so handsome and she suddenly wishes for Edward's gift of reading thoughts as Mark mentally begins to compare the differences in her appearance between Lexie and Allison. It was so hard to stand there and watch him accept her new persona, when all she really wanted to do was scream, 'Mark, it's me Lexie!' And jump into his arms.

"Thank you, for helping with the bartender…. I really needed a drink tonight, Mr…?" She says trying to break the uncomfortable silence between them.

Her accent is cute; he thinks to himself and gives her a polite smile. "It's Doctor, actually… Doctor Mark Sloan, I'm the head of Plastics at Grey Memorial. We umm... actually bumped into each other earlier today."

She pretends to look confused for a moment before saying, "Oh, Yeah outside the resident's lounge. I'm sorry I almost knocked you down…. I was looking for the intern that was supposed to direct me to the OR and wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me."

"No damage done." He says and gives her one of his flirty smiles that still makes her body tingle in awareness. "So Doctor Scott….do you mind if I call you Allison?" he watches her nod in agreement then continues.

"So Allison, I noticed you looked upset after getting off of the phone. Is everything, okay?"

"Actually no... I was at the Mall when the explosion occurred and I lost everything… my luggage…my wallet and my passport. So I called my family to see if they could send a courier with additional funds and replacement documents, for a new passport. They're able to send the money, but all of our documents were sent to our lawyer's office to update the paper work for the new home they just purchased. And just my luck, he was called away unexpectedly and will be gone for two weeks."

"So what are you going to do now?" Mark asks curiously and when she smiles, his heart jumps because at this moment in time, she is Lexie.

Seeing April waving at her to come back to their table, she grabs their drinks and just shrugs.

"I don't know yet, I'll figure it out tomorrow. But for tonight, I've got enough money for some drinks and a few new friends to hang out with." Walking away, she turns but looks back over her shoulder and says. "Thanks again for your help, Mark."

Mark salutes her back with his glass of Scotch and watches her walk back toward the others; even from behind she's amazing and that includes a very familiar ass. Finishing off his drink, he puts on his leather jacket and pulls out his phone as he walks to his apartment, when he hears the caller pickup, he says.

"Hey Bro, it's me. Yeah I know it's late, but I just wanted to give you a heads up, that you might have the next two weeks to convince Doctor Scott to accept your offer."

"Why? Because she lost her passport in the explosion; so unless her family comes to get her, she's stuck here in Seattle until she can get a new one issued." He pauses to listen to Derek's response, "No I think she's going to crash at Kepner's tonight, they seemed to have become friends."

"Yeah, I know. We were all so busy today; everyone forgot she came in an ambulance from the Mall." He pauses in front of his apartment and begins to wrap up his conversation. "No, she didn't seem that worried about it. I just left her getting drinks at Joes. Hey, I'm gonna get some sleep… yeah I'll see you tomorrow…. Night." Hanging up he went into his apartment, turned on the lights and threw his keys on the counter before going over to the mantel above his fireplace. Reaching for the picture frame, he sat down and stared at the picture of Lexie smiling from the deck of a ferry boat. Sighing he traces her face with his fingertip, then sit's back and beings to think about Allison Scott. He knows realistically that she's a different person, but every time he sees her… there's just something in the back of his mind that makes him think she's just pretending.

Rubbing his tired eyes, he puts the picture on the end table and lies down on the couch. Within minutes he falls asleep and begins to dream of Lexie walking through a field of flowers, picking them as she goes. She looks over to him smiling and holds out her hand for him to join her, but as he gets closer the sky turns dark and the field has now turned into a forest with wreckage of the plane strewn around. His heart begins to race as he runs through the trees calling her name and then stops upon finding the tail section; the cold slivers of dread creeping into his soul because he already knows what he will find. Rushing over he falls to his knees and looks underneath, but she's gone! Standing up he frantically begins calling her name, 'Lexie!' and sees her pale form standing silently off to the side watching him, but what's surprising is that Allison Scott is standing behind her. Both women have the same sad expression on their faces as they watch him struggle to get closer, but he can't move. He can do nothing but watch as Allison take's ahold of Lexie's hand to pull her back into the darkened forest until they merge as one and disappeared.

"No!" His heart is pounding and his body is drenched in sweat as he jerks awake. Sitting up he wipes the tears away from his face and gets up to go to the bathroom. Standing under the harsh light in front of the mirror, he sees a grief stricken man staring back until something clicks when the last remnants of his dream replays; in the end Lexie and Allison had become the same person.


	22. Chapter 22: Secrets We Hide

Chapter 22: Secrets We Hide

Over the next few days at the hospital, the ER was back to normal and the Doctors had completed the follow-up care for the patients injured in the explosion and were rescheduling the surgeries that had been pushed back. After receiving her couriered package that included a Gucci backpack filled with money, several outfits (compliments of Alice), and a new cell phone; Allison had planned on asking Doctor Hunt to reserve a room for her at a local hotel for the next few weeks.

She had been surprised when Derek and Meredith sought her out the morning after the explosion to apologize for not making sure she had somewhere to go and had invited her to stay at their house while she waited for an updated passport. At first, she had declined knowing that being around her would be uncomfortable for Meredith, but by the end of the first day they had worn her down and she agreed. Leaving the hospital with them had been a familiar, yet weird experience as she sat in the back seat answering questions about her life in England and watching the loving interaction between the couple. Upon arriving at their home, she had to fight to keep her emotions contained when being introduced to her now seven year old niece, Zola; four year old nephew, Christopher and 18 month old, Lexa. Although, she had known before the plane crash that Meredith had accepted her as a sister; finding out that she had named her youngest daughter in her honor was proof that she had been loved by her as well. In that moment, Allison had almost broken down and told them the truth of who she really was, but had stopped herself by pushing everything back inside. Internally calming herself, she gave them all warm friendly smiles and allowed the two oldest kids to give her a grand tour of the house, before being shown to the guest room.

Several hours after putting the kids to bed and having a glass of wine with Meredith and Derek; Allison quietly slipped out of the house to hunt. Running deep into the forest, she let her instincts take over until she found her prey and took down a large buck in seconds. Once completed, she made her way to an over cropping on a mountain and looked down into the darkened forest, while sitting on her knees. Now alone, she could no longer hold back all of the emotions she had been controlling since her arrival; closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let everything go. At first, it was just tears, that flowed down her face in a steady stream but they quickly turned into loud sobs, until she could no longer stop thinking about everyone she had left behind. Turning her face up to the stars, she gave a long scream in anguish at the top of her lungs, startling the surrounding wildlife below. Eventually, her tears stopped and she lay down on the cool granite to think about her family sleeping peacefully below; she had seen Zola's crutches, which meant her Spina Bifida had progressed to the point where a dangerous surgery was needed to fix her spine. Hopefully, she could spend some time with Zola, so that she could slowly heal her without anyone noticing. Sighing, she continued to watch the night sky until thunder clouds filled with lightning began to roll in. Feeling better, Allison quickly made her way back to the Shepherd household before storm hit, took a shower and then because of the time difference called St George's hospital to explain that she had to prolong her vacation for two more weeks. She could tell that the Chief wasn't happy, but since she hadn't taken any vacation time at all during her residency, he could not complain. Of course, once she returned to England and let them know she was not going to complete her fellowship there, they would be very upset. But after all of the crap, Doctor Radcliff had put her through, she really didn't care.

The next morning, watching her now domesticated sister rush around the house to try to get the kids ready for their morning commute into the city had been fun to watch. According to Meredith, their nanny would normally feed the kids and help with their clothes so that they could take Zola and Chris to school, but the nanny was on vacation this week. Forty five minutes after leaving the Shepherd home and dropping the two eldest off at their school, they pulled into the hospital parking lot and Allison unstrapped Lexa from her car seat. To Allison's surprise the toddler let her pick her up to carry into the hospital; following behind Derek and Meredith chuckled as they watched their normally shy daughter happily babbling to Allison as she play with her hair.

"She must like you." Meredith said smiling as she takes Lexa from Allison's arms, "Most of the time she whines or cries if someone she doesn't know holds her."

"Oh… well she's a sweetheart and I'm pretty good with children, that's why I want to specialize in Pediatric Neurosurgery." She smiled back and waved her niece good bye as Meredith took her to daycare.

Turning back to Derek, she asked. "Doctor Shepherd, I hope you don't mind…. But I'm going to take off after morning rounds to run a few errands and shop for some clothes. I should be back later this afternoon, unless an emergency comes up. If so I've left my new cell phone number at the nurses' station."

"Sounds good, Doctor Scott; just have me paged when you return and we can do the Jacobson consultation together." He said agreeing to her request and they walked into the elevator to begin the day.

* * *

Pulling up into the cemetery, Mark Sloan stopped his car near a familiar gravesite and reached over to take the bouquet of Daisy's and wildflowers from the passenger seat. Making his way over to her grave, he carefully laid the flowers on top of her gravestone then traced his fingertip on her name carved in stone. After waking up from his coma, he had been told what had happened to Lexie's body and that they still erected a gravestone next to her mother in her memory, but he still came here once a week to visit and talk about what was going on in their lives.

"Hey babe, it's me. Sorry I haven't been here in a few weeks, I just got back from taking Princess Sofia to Disney World….you would have gotten a blast out of watching her race around to meet all of the Disney characters. I gotta tell you, that kid wears me out." He chuckles for a minute, then becomes somber.

"I've been having dreams about you again… but this time they're different…. You're still being pulled away from me but now you're changing into a different person. You see there's a new doctor visiting the hospital and she….looks just like you, Lex….and sometimes she acts like you." He sighs heavily and runs his fingers through his rain soaked hair.

"I know… I know… it's not possible, since I was with you that day. But I've been watching her and there are times when I swear it's you pretending to be someone else." He sighs again and looks off into the distance. "Yeah… I hear you… stop being a stalker…..well I've gotta go. I have an Intern following up on my post-ops and you know how I feel about leaving them alone for two long…..I love you sweetheart. Talk to you soon." Kissing the tips of his fingers, he then touches the top of the stone and walks back to his car.

Pulling away, he had just gone beyond the cemetery gates, when a taxi passes him and he gets a quick glimpse of the passenger. 'Was that Allison?' He thinks and turns his car around to follow the taxi inside at a discrete distance. Parking his car at a side road, he watches as a woman exits the cab and walks to the gravesite he has just left, reaching into the back seat he pulls out a toy telescope Sofia had left in the car from their trip. Adjusting it, he could now see that it was indeed Allison Scott standing in front of Susan and Lexie's gravesite. He watches as she smiles at the flowers he had just left, but then moves over to Susan Grey's grave and places a beautiful bouquet of carnations on her stone.

"What the hell?" he said out loud, Lexie had told him once that Susan's favorite flower were carnations, but how would Allison Scott, a woman who had never met Susan Grey, know what type of flower to bring. In fact as he continued to watch her, she was acting more like a daughter "visiting" her mother's grave, then someone who was curious about her "look alike". Fifteen minutes later, Allison concluded her visit as the rain began to come down harder and opened the cab's door to get inside, but she stops and takes a look around the cemetery as if she senses him watching her. Seemingly satisfied that she was not being observed, she gets into the cab and it drives away.

Marks sits there, his mind racing by what he had just seen. When he first met Allison, he had felt such a jolt of familiarity when they touched, but he put it off to her looking like Lexie. Now he wasn't so sure and the only way to learn the truth would be for him to find a way to get closer to her.

* * *

A few days later an opportunity arose where he could finally get some time alone with her. After working on a facial reconstruction of a patient that had been hit by a car; the three of them were scrubbing out when Allison let Derek know that she had been asked by her brother-in-law to open his free medical clinic near Forks this weekend. Apparently the new doctor he had hired had broken his ankle three weeks ago and had not been able to visit with patients. Derek had smiled knowing that her family had recently moved to Montana, yet still had a house out in Forks and asked her how she was going to get out there, when he jumped into the conversation.

"Doctor Scott, I've got no plans for this weekend. I'd be happy to take you." Mark said giving her a brilliant smile.

"That's very nice of you, Doctor Sloan! But you don't have to stay all weekend; I only need a ride to Carlisle's house and one of the locals can get me to the Clinic." She replied surprised and a little leery about Mark's offer.

"So how would you get home?" Mark curiously asked.

"Oh, I can get someone from the local Quileute Tribe to bring me back to Seattle."

"Now that's just silly Doctor Scott, I'm perfectly capable of driving you to Forks and back. In fact, I'll come with you to the clinic on Saturday and help out; once we're done, I'll drop you off at your family's house and I'll rent a room at a hotel. With any luck, we'll be headed back to Seattle by Sunday morning." Mark said trying to convince her of his plan.

Allison felt a flutter in her stomach as she nervously thought about spending a weekend alone with him, but decided that if she couldn't handle a few days around him, then accepting Grey Memorial's Fellowship offer would be out of the question.

"Okay I'll accept your offer. Can you pick me up from Doctor Shepherd's house around 6 AM, tomorrow?" she says smiling back at him.

"No problem, I'll see you then." He answers, almost giddy that his plan worked and watches her walk away.

Derek on the other hand had been watching their interaction and his eyes look at Mark suspiciously.

"What are you doing, Mark?" he asks and watches Mark put on his innocent face.

"Nothing, I'm just being nice to your prospective Fellowship candidate!" he says putting his hands up in surrender.

"Hmm right, your offer doesn't have to do with the fact that's she's young, gorgeous and looks like the love of your life?" Derek crosses his arms across his chest and watches his reaction.

"Hey Bro… I'm not going to lie. It's been…well five years since I've been interested in a woman and yes part of it's because she looks like Lexie, but I know she's a different person. So the whole point in me volunteering for this little trip is to get to know Allison Scott." Mark said suddenly realizing that this conversation was similar to Derek's request for him to stay away from Lexie when she was an Intern.

"Alright… she's young but an adult, so I'm going to trust you not to turn into your former man whoring ways and scare her off. Because if you do; and she declines my fellowship offer, I will kick you in the ass." Derek threatens and then turns to head back to the Neuro dept.

Mark just stands there and takes a deep breath; despite Derek's threat, this is going to be an interesting weekend.


	23. Chapter 23: Living in the Moment

Chapter 23: Living in the Moment

On his way to the Shepherd household the next morning, Mark began to wonder if volunteering to help Allison Scott was a good idea. When they had been officially introduced, he had been polite but went out of his way to avoid working with her due to the resemblance to Lexie. But after talking to her in the bar and then having that weird dream, he changed his routine and began to watch her work. That was when he began to notice the similarities between the two women; the little things, like how she pushed her hair behind her ears to unconsciously play with her earrings when deep in thought or hid in a storage closet to work on files. But once in a while something big popped up like watching her close a patient by using one of his signature stitches, he had taught only to Lexie Grey and Jackson Avery during their Residency. After that and watching her visit Susan Grey's grave, he had wanted to confront her for an explanation; but now he was beginning to wonder if his mind was twisting reality into seeing Allison as Lexie because he missed her so much.

Pulling into the driveway at 6 AM, he got out of his car and watched Allison step off the porch toward him.

"Good Morning Doctor Sloan." She said giving him a polite smile.

"Please call me Mark, we're not at the hospital, so why don't we forgo professional etiquette this weekend and go by our first names. Sound okay to you, Allison?" He asks giving her a flirty smile as he holds out his hand to take her backpack.

"Umm sounds good….Mark." She says stuttering slightly and hands it to him before getting into the car.

Putting her backpack in the trunk next his back, he closed it and got into his car. Taking a deep breath his heart jumped when he caught a whiff of warm vanilla from her perfume, another similarity between her and Lexie.

"So Allison, we've little bit of a ride, what would you like to talk about?" he asks and puts the car in gear to begin their trip.

A hour and half later, after doing basic Questions and Answers, they arrived at the outskirts of Forks and Allison let him know that she would need to visit with the Quileute Tribe's chief, before dropping her stuff off at the Cullen home. Going on to the reservation, Mark slowly made his way down the gravel road and was startled when he noticed several large dogs that looked like wolves watching them from the forest. Pulling up in front of a tiny home, he parked the car and was about to get out with Allison when she asked him to wait for her. He nodded and pulled out his phone to check his messages.

Getting out of the car, Allison wrinkled her nose at the musky scent of Wolves that came from the forest surrounding Sam Uley's house; she could sense many of them cautiously watching her. Going onto the porch she knocked on the door and was surprised when a beautiful, yet scarred woman opened the door.

"Hi I'm here to see Sam Uley…. Carlisle Cullen sent me." she asked nervously; Carlisle had said he would call Sam and let him know she was coming, but at the woman's serious expression she was wondering if he forgot.

"Come on in," the woman gestured before saying. "I'm Emily, Sam's wife." Walking into the living room, Allison heard a snarl, seconds before the back door flew open revealing a tall menacing Indian standing there wearing shorts. Then Sam's demeanor changed when he realized that he had met her before when she had first become a member of the Cullen family.

"You're that doctor, the Cullen's changed after being injured in a plane crash… Lexie Grey, right? " He asked and made a signal that she was okay to the large wolf standing outside the door.

"Yes, that's right, but it's Allison Scott now. My name was changed when I moved away five years ago. Didn't Carlisle call to let you know I was coming to work in the Clinic today?" she asked now reassured that they weren't going to rip her apart.

Sam shook his head yes before responding, "Yeah one of the younger members of the tribe picked up my phone and took a message for me when I was out cutting wood. But I'm starting to think he didn't listen to everything Carlisle said, because I'm pretty sure he would have warned us that the doctor covering the clinic today was a vampire." He at least looked embarrassed about the mix-up before walking over to wrap his arms around Emily. "So are you going to be able to be around humans, because there are people from outside the Rez that come to get medical treatment?"

"Sam, I've just spent the last five years doing my residency at a hospital in one of England's large metropolitan cities and I fix damaged human bodies every day. Trust me when I say, being around humans or their blood does not bother me. In fact, I can swear to you, that I've never tasted human blood the entire time I've been an Immortal." Allison assured him.

Now satisfied, that she was true to the Cullen "Vegan" lifestyle, he asked. "What about the guy in the car?

"That's Doctor Mark Sloan, he's human and he volunteered to help me at the clinic today." She answered before looking at her watch to see that it was almost 8:30 AM. "What time does the clinic normally open?"

"They open at 10 AM, but since word's gotten around that a Doctor was finally showing up, there will be people lining up at the door by 9:30 AM. So you've got enough time to drop off your stuff at the Cullen house, get your friend something to eat and get ready to be swamped." He said chuckling, "Don't worry, you've got some good help, you remember Sue and Leah Clearwater right?" He watched her shake her head yes and continued. "Well, Leah is the nurse and Sue is the receptionist who will keep the patient's organized."

"Oh, well that's a relief, I'm happy we won't be alone in this. But could you please let them know that I go by Allison Scott now, since Doctor Sloan is not aware of what I am?" she asked and watches him nod in agreement before making her way to the door. But before she can leave, Emily calls out for her to wait and rushes out from the kitchen to give Allison a small basket filled with fresh muffins about the size of a man's fist.

"Here these are for Doctor Sloan," she says smiling and then as Sam walks back into the kitchen to get his own breakfast, she quietly continues. "I'll be stopping by today for a checkup. I think I'm pregnant and I just want to make sure everything is okay."

"Okay, I'll see you later and we'll run some tests. Thanks for the muffins, Mark will love them!" She said giving Emily a warm smile before making her way outside to Mark's car and getting inside.

"Wow, those look and smell amazing!" Mark exclaimed upon seeing the basket of muffins.

"They're a gift from the chief's wife, Emily. Why don't we stop in town to pick up some coffee and then we can head to my family's home to eat? Chief Uley said, the clinic normally doesn't open till 10 AM, but since they haven't had a Doctor visit in a month, people will be arriving early. So we've got about an hour before we need to be there."

Mark nodded his head in agreement as he put his car in gear. "Will that give me enough time to find a motel room for the night?

"Actually, I was going to ask if you'd like to stay with me at the house." Allison said looking over to Mark before continuing. "I mean it would be silly for you to rent a room for the night when there's plenty of room for both of us….of course I'm not sure how much furniture is left so we might have to sleep on the floor, but we'll get it figured out." Realizing that she was rambling for the first time in five years she stopped and watched him pull his eyes away from the road to look at her.

"That sounds good, Allison. As for the sleeping arrangements, we'll make it up as we go." He said in a low sexy voice that sent a tingling sensation through her body, then he smiled and returned his eyes to the road. Once in town, they stopped at a local coffee shop to pick up a bone dry cappuccino and Latte before she directed him out to the Cullen home.

"Wow, this place is gorgeous!" exclaimed Mark as he got out of his car and pulled out their bags before looking at the Cullen home surrounded by the lush green forest.

"Let me show around." Allison offered and put in the security code to open the door. Following Allison inside, she gave him the grand tour, which showed that her family had left a few pieces of furniture including a couch in the living room, a bed in Edward's old room and the kitchen table with its chairs.

"This place is amazing. Are they going to put it on the market since they've moved to Montana?" He asks, thinking that this would be a great place to come if he ever wanted to get out of Seattle for a while.

"I'm not sure. I know that until Carlisle is satisfied with the new doctor he has hired to cover the clinic; he plans to visit for the next few months, so he'll keep the house until then. But I could give him your number if he decides to sell it." She answered.

"Sounds good." He said before looking down at his watch. "Hey we better eat real quick so we can make it to the clinic on time."

"Actually, Emily made me taste test a few of them at her house, so I'm not hungry. You go ahead and eat while I get cleaned up." She said quickly making up an excuse to avoid eating and grabbed her bag to head up to Edwards's room. After closing the door, she leaned against it and closed her eyes.

'Oh my God…this was such a bad idea.' She thought to herself. 'Being around him is driving me nuts!

* * *

15 minutes later they arrived at the clinic where Allison introduced Mark to Sue and Leah Clearwater, who showed quickly showed them around before they began seeing the first patients. The next few hours flew by as the doctors saw a steady stream of patients that came in for various ailments that ranged from an infected cut to walking pneumonia, finally around 1 PM, Sue took off to pick up sandwiches from the local diner.

Now finished up with her last patient for the morning, Allison made her way outside and could see Billy Black sitting in his wheel chair by a picnic table. Making her way over to him, she reintroduced herself and began to ask about Jacob and Reneesmee; when she suddenly became aware that someone was sneaking up on her seconds before she felt powerful arms wrap themselves around her waist and lift her off the ground to give her a hug.

"Lexie!" Seth exclaimed, excited to finally see the young doctor he had met five years ago.

Relaxing now that she knew she wasn't being attacked, Allison smiled and hugged the tall, muscular teenager back before she realized that he had just shouted out her real name. Nervously looking back toward the clinic, she sighed in relief to see that Mark had yet to come outside and had not heard Seth. Now back on the ground, she could see that Seth towered over her and had turned into a handsome young man.

"Seth, Oh my gosh look at you! What is your mom feeding you? Bears?" she asked giving him an affectionate smile.

"Nah…it's a wolf thing." He shrugged sheepishly, now embarrassed that he had picked up the young doctor he had a crush on ever since he had met her. "It's really good to see you again, Lexie. I've missed you." He said softly.

"It's good to see you to Seth, but could you do me a favor and not call me Lexie. I go by Allison now and the other doctor that came with me only knows me by that name."

"Sure… I'll try to remember that." He replied and then they began talking about what courses he was taking in college since he had decided to become a Doctor.

Unbeknownst to everyone outside, Mark Sloan had been finishing up his patient's file and had opened the window just before Allison had gone outside. When he had looked out the window minutes later he had noticed her smiling down at a man in a wheelchair and couldn't stop his curiosity from getting the best of him. So he had stood hidden behind the curtains to watch their interaction for a moment and was about to head outside, when he saw a large young man sneak over to pick her up for a hug. While she had yelped in surprise at being picked up; he was caught by surprise when the young man had yelled out the name "Lexie" instead of "Allison". Moving away from the window, he leaned against the examining table trying to control his breathing, while his mind raced as everything began to click into place; somehow Lexie Grey had survived the plane crash and become Allison Scott!

* * *

**Ahh now we're getting to the good part! I know once again it's ended with a cliff hanger, but I promise to get the next chapter out soon... or at least I'm going to try, but between work and getting everything packed for a family vacation in a few weeks...well you know how it is.**

**As for all of my reviewers, I would just like to say you are all wonderful and thank you so much! You make writing this story so much easier! **


	24. Chapter 24: No More Lies!

**Sorry it took so long to update, but I did warn you all. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 24: No More Lies!

Thankfully the rest of the afternoon had been as mundane as the morning, the only thing that had pulled his thoughts away from the Allison/Lexie dilemma, was when he was introduced to the Chief's wife, Emily Uley. Wanting to meet the woman who had made those incredible muffins, Mark was shocked when she had turned around and he saw the deep tissue scarring on her face from an animal attack. Jumping into full plastic surgeon mode, he began to give her different options of what procedures could be done to fix the scars on her face and offered to do the work pro-bono, if she came to Seattle. At first, Emily had declined by explaining that Allison had just confirmed that she was 12 weeks pregnant, but let him know that if the offer still stood after the baby was born, then she would graciously accept his gift. He nodded his head in agreement and provided his business card, before heading back to finish up the now dwindling line of patients. Finally at 6:30 PM, the last patient had been seen and everyone worked quickly to get the clinic cleaned up so that they could leave for the day. An hour later, after giving the Clearwater's their thanks for helping them at the clinic; they got into Marks car and made their way back to Forks. After 10 minutes of asking Mark questions about his day and him answering with single word syllables, Allison began to wonder if he was just exhausted from seeing so many people or if something was bothering him.

"Did you want to stop at the diner and order something to take back to the house?" Allison asked and looks toward him.

"I'm not really hungry…. Can we just head back to the house?" He responded in a tired monotone voice.

"Umm…sure… sounds good." She nervously answers and turns away from him to look out into the darkening forest. Arriving at the Cullen house soon after, they head inside and she starts begins turning on the lights before heading to the fireplace to light the fire.

Sensing that Mark has followed her, she turns around to ask him what's going on, but is pulled into his arms until their lips are almost touching. She feels his tongue bridge the gap to trace her lips, then delves deeper into her mouth until she melts into his body with a moan and kisses him back. Slightly pulling away he gently gives her one softer kiss before touching his forehead to hers and whispers.

"Ahh there you are, Lexie. You have no idea how much I've missed this." He gives her one last kiss to her forehead and pulls away until their standing apart.

"Wait….wh…why did you just call me Lexie?" she asks breathlessly as her muddled brain realizes that he said her real name.

"I think you know why, Alexandra Caroline Grey." he said watching her stunned expression, as she takes another step away from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about... she's dead. Lexie Grey is dead." She denies, while trying to figure out what was going on. "My name is Allison Scott."

"Please, stop lying to me!" he begs feeling his anger grow at her denial; "I know you… lived with you for almost a year, Lexie! I've intimately touched every scar, birth mark and dimple on your body; from the little birth mark under your right breast to the scar on your left pinkie where you cut off the tip when I told you about Sloane moving in with us."

"Mark….you don't understand….. I can't be Lexie." She begins trying to make him see reason, but he interrupts as his temper flares up.

"Damn it! I've been watching you! At first it was little things, like the way you smiled! But then, you did the Sloan loper stitch that I showed you as an Intern…. I only taught two people that suturing technique and then a few days later I saw you bring flowers to your Mom's grave! Her favorite flowers…. And that kid yesterday…. I heard him call you Lexie!" He has begun to cry with frustration and angrily wipes the tears off his face. "Please just tell me the truth!"

Her soul feels as if it's shattering, when he begins to cry, but she remains silent; torn with the desire to blurt out the truth, yet knowing to do so would put him at risk.

"Mark….the Lexie Grey you knew died in that plane crash. I'm sorry but that's the truth." She says sadly and moves away from him to go to the door, but looks back and continues, "I…..umm going to get a bit of fresh air, but if you need to leave…..I'll understand." Not waiting for a reply, she walks outside and heads into the forest and begins to run until she is several miles away from the house. Finally stopping, she sits down on the damp moss on the forest floor and wraps her arms around her knees to think about Mark.

'Damn it! Why did I ever think, I could fool him into thinking I was someone else? I should have known he would watch me closer . What am I going to do now?' She internally berated herself remembering the devastated expression on his face when she walked out. 'Oh God, how was she going to continue this illusion of being Allison Scott when all she wanted to do was tell Mark the truth, but to do so could put him and everyone else she cared about in danger? Was it worth the risk?' Biting on her fingernail, she sits deep in thought weighing her options until she hears the rustling in the brush and smells the musky scent of an approaching wolf. Sitting quietly to remain unthreatening, she watches the large grey wolf approach and transform into a naked Leah Clearwater.

"Lexie?" she asks curiously and quickly pulls out clothes from a bag that had been hanging around her neck. "Are you out hunting tonight?"

Not getting a response, Leah could see the tears glistening against Lexie's pale despondent face and knew something was wrong. Sitting down adjacent from her new friend, she asks, "What's happened?"

"I was stupid, that's what's happened!" Lexie answers, angrily wiping away the tears, before looking up at Leah. "I've endangered everyone I've ever loved by returning to Seattle."

"How? Is it the Volturi? Have they found out about you?" she asks anxiously; very much aware of how powerful and ruthless, the old vampire leaders could be.

"No, it's not them. As far as I know, they are still unaware of my existence." Lexie says reassuring Leah, that at the moment they were safe.

"It's Mark…Doctor Sloan, he's figured out that I'm Lexie Grey and I don't know how to convince him otherwise." She says seriously and watches the emotions flit across Leah's face.

"How can he know who you are? Didn't you just meet him during your interview at the hospital?" she asks curiously and notices Lexie shift uncomfortably at the question.

"Wait! That's the hospital you used to work at before the crash, isn't it? What on earth were you thinking, going back to a hospital where people knew you as Lexie Grey?!" Leah yelled in disbelief.

"It's been 5 years, Leah! Everyone at the hospital, including my sister were startled by my physical appearance, but accepted my new persona as Allison Scott." Lexie defended and jumped up to begin pacing back and forth. "But Mark is special; I should have known, he would look at the whole picture and figure out who I was. Especially since we were….." She stops and lets the rest of the sentence drop.

Suddenly realizing that there was much more between the two doctors then being co-workers, Leah jumps up from the forest floor and blurts. "You two were lovers!"

"Yeah, for quite a while; until circumstances and misunderstandings tore us apart." Lexie begins to explain, "But I've never stopped loving him and when the plane crashed…. He begged me to live… because we were meant to be together." She wipes away a stray tear, before continuing. "He's my soul mate, yet to protect him, we have to remain apart. Help me, Leah. I don't know what to do."

Leah nods in understanding, putting a hand on Lexie's arm; she stops her from pacing until they are now facing each other.

"Five years ago, you listened to your head instead of your heart and ran away to protect him, but now it's time to follow your heart. My advice is to tell him the truth and if he truly loves you, then what you are now won't matter. Keeping secrets can be just as painful as the truth." Leah smiles and whispers "Good Luck." Before removing her clothes and transforming back into the wolf.

Alone once again, Lexie comes to a decision about Mark knowing her identity and makes her way back to the house where she sees that his car is still in the driveway. After going inside, she watches as Mark jumps up off from the couch in surprise and says, "Thank God! It's been two hours since you left, I was really starting to worry that something had happened to you out in the woods!"

He watches as she walks towards him and begins to say, "Look, I'm sorry if I ambushed you tonight. I just want…." But stops when she stands directly in front of him and puts a finger over his lips.

"I know what you want, Mark. But for tonight, I'm going to get what I want." Taking a step back, she reaches down to the hem of her sweater.

"Teach Me." she says softly and pulls her sweater over her head.

"Wha…?" his mouth drops open as he watches her strip.

"Teach Me." she says again suggestively, then pulls off her boots and unbuttons her jeans.

"Lexie…" he whispers in hushed reverence as her words finally spark an important memory.

"Teach Me." she says again then pulls off her camisole and looks at him with love. "Am I really so bad?"

He reaches out to wrap his arms around her waist and breaths in the warm vanilla scent of her hair before huskily saying, "Oh God…..no…I am."

She smiles up at him seductively before taking his hand in hers and pulls him upstairs to bed.


	25. Chapter 25: Here with Me Now

**This next chapter is the longest, I've ever written and it's as close to Smut as I'm willing to go with a (T) rating, so I hope you all enjoy. **

* * *

Chapter 25: Here with Me Now

Several hours later, Mark lay propped up on his left side caressing Lexie's naked back as she lay on her stomach, with her face turned away from him. Her alabaster skin felt different then he remembered; it was soft and smooth, yet cool to the touch like marble; just touching her brought him a jolt of pleasure like an electrical charge. Making love to her had always been mind-blowingly fantastic, but last night she had brought him so far over the edge multiple times that he had thought his body would explode. He still could not believe that she was here…..his little Grey was lying in next to him, but as much as he didn't want this moment to end he needed to know how? Especially after feeling the undamaged skin on her legs, which should have had scar tissue from her injuries in the crash; as a plastic surgeon he knew that her recovery wasn't possible.

"Lex, what happened at the crash site?" he asks softly after leaning over to kiss her shoulder.

Knowing that she can no longer stall his question, Lexie reaches down to pull up the sheet and cover herself before turning to face him.

"I wasn't dead, when you all left me under the plane." She whispers, no longer using her British accent and watches his shocked expression.

"No….I held your hand… there was no pulse." He whispered in shocked disbelief.

"Due to the cold, my core temperature had dropped and I slipped into a coma." She explained and cupped her hand to his cheek, trying to reassure him. "Without an EKG, you wouldn't have known, Mark."

"Oh God, Lex…we left you alone in the dark." He whispered huskily.

"Shh, it's okay. I don't remember it." She says, before continuing. "The night before you were rescued, they found me…"

"Who found you?" he interrupted.

"Mark, this is hard to explain…. There are rules…..secrets that keep us all safe; please just listen, Okay?" she says getting flustered.

"They pulled me out of the wreckage, but my body was starting to shut down and the only way that they could save my life was to change me….."

"Into what?" he interrupted again, not understanding why she couldn't just tell him the truth.

Frustrated, she jumps off the bed, grabs his dress shirt off the floor to cover herself up and begins pacing while trying to think of a way to tell him the truth without breaking the bond of secrecy held over her by the Immortal laws. Then it came to her, a simple way to explain it to him without directly telling him.

"Do you remember how we used to make fun of those old late night horror movies we'd watch with the weird names like "Nosferatu" or "The Count's Kiss?" She watches as he gives her a confused look, but shakes his head yes. "Let's just say that I'm not laughing now that I know those movies are not solely based on fiction."

What she's suggesting clicks in and he chuckles in disbelief, until he realizes that's she's being serious and sits up in the bed to stare at her.

"Just say it, Mark." She says sadly.

"Lexie, are you saying, they changed you into a Vampire?" he asks, still not believing what she was suggesting.

"We like to be called Immortals, but yes that's what happened." Then in a blink of an eye, she went from one side of the room to the next, and then sat down at the foot of the bed. His eyes bugged out slightly, but he remained still.

"Are you okay, with this?" she hesitantly asked, hoping that he wasn't afraid of her. He nodded yes, then no, but didn't move as his brain tried to processed what he just saw. 'Maybe it was a trick of the light', he thought to himself, still in denial.

Seeing the conflicting emotions crossing his face; Lexie knew that she had to continue, so that he could understand what had happened after the crash.

"I know this is hard to believe, but let me finish telling you what happened that night and then we can go from there, okay?" she asked. He nodded his head in agreement.

"Before I begin, let me just explain that we were all lucky that night." Mark looks confused by her statement but doesn't say anything. "Most Immortals that I've encountered would have taken the opportunity to feed on all of the survivors from the crash and left us dead, but the group that found us is different; they hate taking human life and only feed on animals." Getting off the bed again, Lexie began to pace again as she began retelling the events after the crash.

"So when they came upon the plane's wreckage and pulled it off of me, the leader of this family could tell by my injuries, which included partial amputation of my left hand and severe compartment syndrome of both my legs that I wouldn't survive the trip to the hospital. He decided to change me into an Immortal instead of letting me die and hoped that I would accept my fate to become a member of his family. Once they arrived home, they contacted the authorities and gave them the planes position so that the rest of you could be rescued, and then spent months helping me adjust to my transition." She stops pacing and looks at him with sadness.

"Becoming an Immortal was the most painful thing I ever experienced, both physically and emotionally. Physically it caused my body to rapidly heal from the damage caused by the crash within 72 hours and even though I was sedated…it felt like I was being burned from the inside out." Lexie is quiet for a moment before huskily continuing, "The emotional pain is still ongoing. They have laws, you see….to protect them from discovery and from what I've been told; the consequences of disobeying them can be harsh for both the Immortal and the people who learn the truth. So to protect the people I love…Meredith….my Dad and you, I had to leave the country and give up my old life to become Allison Scott." Feeling the sun rising, she turns away from him and wipes the tears from her eyes as the sun's rays light up her face.

His breath catches as her face begins to shine as if she is covered by a million diamonds and a memory re-surfaces of him waking up in the hospital, with an angel leaning over him.

"You came to the hospital to say goodbye before you left." He whispers, then reaches down to the side of the bed to find his pants and pulls them on before walking over to her to take her back in his arms. To him it doesn't matter what she is now…. This woman is his Lexie; The love of his life.

"Yeah, I did." She mumbles against his warm chest, inhaling his scent. "I couldn't leave without knowing you and Meredith were going to be okay."

"I was dying, but you saved me. How?" he asks and cups her cheeks so she is now looking up into his eyes.

"Some people when changed gain abilities and I found that mine could help heal people. When I found out that you were going to be removed from life support, I came back to help you." She answered and stroked the stubble on his face.

"I don't understand; if I was dying, why didn't you just change me? Then we could have been together."

Pulling away, she walked over to the bay window and looked out into the trees before answering.

"Oh God, you have no idea of how hard it was for me to not change you and then leave you behind! But this life isn't something I wanted for myself and I couldn't justify doing the same to you, especially when you had a beautiful baby girl that needed her daddy. I love you, Mark! But it's all about choices and I wanted you to live."

Coming up behind her, he wraps his arms around her waist and nuzzles her neck. Feeling her relax back into his body, he takes her earlobe between his teeth, and then releases it to whisper. "Thank you for my life, Lexie. I love you too." He continues sucking on her ear, until he reaches up with his left hand to pull down one side of his shirt to expose her shoulder and begins licking his way down. She moans, clearly turned on as much as he was, but pulls away.

"Not now," she whispers huskily, "there's someplace special, I want to take you." He gulps, when she removes his shirt causing the sun glistens off of her amazing body, then sighs when she hands it back and begins pulling on her clothes. Going downstairs, she gathers a few things and puts them in a duffle bag to wait for him by the door.

"Where are we going?" he asks and she just smiles seductively and hands him the bag before leading him outside.

"Care for a piggy back ride?" she asks.

"What?" he asks in surprise.

"Mark, where we're going, we can't get there by car. Just trust me and get on my back." she giggles and watches him shrug in agreement. Putting the duffle bag over his shoulder, he comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her neck and long legs around her tiny waist. 'This is embarrassing,' he thought to himself, then yelped when they took off at such an amazing speed that he had to hold onto her tighter. The trees flew past and his stomach lurched like he was on a roller coaster ride when she began leaping over hills and streams; this was the moment that he finally accepted that she was no longer human, but something far more special. Ten minutes later, he could hear rushing water and gasped as she stopped in front of an small waterfall surrounded with thousands of wildflowers.

"Wow." He whispers and drops the duffel bag on the ground so he can pull out a large blanket to lie on the grass. He heart skips a beat when Lexie once again gives him a seductive smile and begins removing her clothes until she is standing there gloriously naked.

"I've wanted to show you this place ever since; I found it 5 years ago. Care for a swim?" She laughs at his lusty expression and jumps into the pool. Quickly stripping his clothes off, he makes his way to the side of the pool and moans upon seeing her back arched over a large boulder letting the waterfall crash down over her body like an erotic shower. Jumping into the pool, he's surprised at how warm it is and makes his way to her side so that they are now facing each other. Reaching up he takes her face in his hands and looks deeply into her amber eyes.

"I love you so much, Lexie." He says his voice filled with emotion, then kisses her lips and begins to make his way down until he is suckling her breast. Holding his head there, she closes her eyes in ecstasy and moans, "I love you too, Mark.

* * *

After several more rounds of lovemaking, they are now lying on the blanket while the warm sun dries their naked bodies. Fascinated by how soft and silky her long hair is, he twirls it around his fingertips, as she lays sprawled across his chest unwilling to move until his stomach suddenly growls and she begins to giggle.

"Well, I guess that's our queue to leave; apparently I've ravaged you enough to the point of starvation." She smiles up at his face and he chuckles. "Yes, well. I'm only human." He jokes in reply and sees her smile disappear.

"I know." she whispers, then stands up and begins pulling on her clothes.

"Lex…. Babe….it's okay." He says and gets up to pull her back into his arms, but she pulls away.

"Let's head back for showers and get you something to eat." She says giving him a sad smile, knowing that their time away from reality must end. Nodding, he gets dressed and they return back to the house.

An hour later, Mark pulls his car up to a restaurant in downtown Forks and they leave the uncomfortable silence of the car. Sitting down together, the waitress comes to take their order and stands there talking to them, since she knows that they are the Doctors who helped out at the Free Clinic the previous day. Finally leaving, Mark sighs at Lexie's silence and asks.

"Back at the house, you said you had to leave to protect us. Why did you come back, Lex?" he asks softly.

Lexie turns to look at Mark and knows that he deserves the truth, so she answers his question.

"I wasn't planning on coming back, Mark. But when I saw Doctor Webber at my boards, I began to wonder how everyone was here in Seattle and it made me realize that it would look strange if I declined the hospitals fellowship interview; especially since it has one of the top ranked Neuro programs in the country. So I arranged for an appointment and hoped that most of the people I knew 5 years ago had moved on or didn't remember what I looked like. I mean I knew you, Mere and the rest of the attendings would see the similarities but I thought if I just showed up, did the interview and left no one would have time to figure it out." She stops her explanation when the waitress comes back with his order before continuing.

"I should have left right after everything calmed down from the Mall explosion, but it was just like old times when we all used to work together. The drama was the same, the nurses still gossiped and everyone was using the on call rooms for other things besides sleeping. I missed that…I missed being around the people who loved me….I missed seeing my sister have two more beautiful kids…. But most of all I missed you. There hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't wished things could have been different; that we had both stopped being stupid and admitted our feelings before that plane fell out of the sky." She gives a mirthless chuckle, "Well fate is a fickle bitch and here we are 5 years later, finally admitting how much we love each other. But we both know that what we did last night and again today can't continue because it's too dangerous and I'm not willing to risk your life…. Not for me."

Taking her hand in his, he feels overwhelmed with sadness, when he realizes how much she has sacrificed for the people she cares about.

"Well I for one am happy that fate put you back in my lonely life, because losing you almost destroyed me, Lex. After, I woke up; I made Julia leave because she wasn't you and then two weeks later, they gave the search for your body. At the memorial service, it finally hit me that you weren't coming back and I became so depressed I couldn't sleep or eat, until Derek forced me to go to see a grief counselor. It took a while and then one day Sofia climbed up into my lap, put her hands on my face and said with her sweet baby voice, "Wuv you, Daddy." She melted my heart, Lex and I promised to always be there for my girl." Putting her hand to his lips, he kisses it before continuing. "She has been the only woman in my life since then; Callie, Arizona and I still remain co-parents and friends, but I haven't been in a relationship since the crash. Don't get me wrong, I've dated….but when I was with them…. It just didn't feel right because they weren't you. So let me just make one thing clear, this time you don't get to decide what's best for me or my life. You own half my soul, Lexie and there is no way in hell, I'm going to let you leave without putting up a fight. And if it's dangerous, then so be it, because every moment with you in my life is worth the risk. "

"Mark…"she begins trying to argue, but he stops her.

"Shh, we've got a few more days to figure things out before you head back to England and I plan to spend every free moment of those days holding you in my arms." He gives her his famous Sloan smile, until she finally nods her head in agreement before continuing. "Now that this discussion is temporarily settled, why don't you let me finish eating so I can prove to you just how much more this human can handle being ravaged."

She smiles back at his cocky attitude and picks up a French fry to pop it into his open mouth, then follows it with a kiss to his lips.

"Then I guess you'd better hurry." She smirks and he feels his heart jump as the blood rushes down to his groin, looking over his shoulder; he raises his hand and yells to the waitress.

"Check, Please!"


	26. Chapter 26: Fear is Lonely

**Yeah I know, this update took forever. Sorry about that, I've just not been in the mood to write. I'll try to update sooner. **

* * *

Chapter 26: Fear is Lonely

After spending the rest of the weekend making love, Mark's human body had finally succumbed to exhaustion and Lexie quietly left the bed to get dressed. Leaving the room, she went downstairs to write him a note, in case he woke up to find her missing, and left the house to go hunting; since they would need to leave in a few hours for the trip back to Seattle. An hour later, she was fed and jumped into the shower to wash off the remnants of her prey before climbing back into bed with him. Although she no longer needed to sleep, it felt amazing when he instinctively wrapped his arm over her waist and pulled her against his body until they merged as one.

"Hmm, your hair is damp… did you take a shower without me?" He mumbled sleepily against her neck.

"Yeah, I ummm had to go get something to eat, so I took one to get cleaned up." She whispered, still unsure how to broach how she feeds on blood.

"So does that mean you're a messy eater?" he chuckles slightly at his joke.

"Ahhh no, but a wild boar is basically a pig and because they are just like their farm cousins, they really stink!" she giggled and felt him smile against her neck.

"Well, you smell good now." He whispered and began to kiss her neck.

"Mark, stop…. you need to sleep." She moaned softly, "besides if we keep this up, I might accidentally break…you know…. your bone." She jokes.

"Ahhh….very funny, Little Grey; but I'm willing to take the risk if you are." He says huskily, becoming more amorous. She smiles, turns around to face him and whispers, "With you… always."

Suddenly, her phone begins to ring and they both jump apart in surprise wondering who could be calling at 4 AM. Reaching over she looks at the display and sits up in shock when she realizes that it's Derek Shepherd calling her.

"Doctor Shepherd, What's going on?" she asks reverting back to her British accent and Mark sits up to turn on the light when he hears Derek's name.

"No, we're…ummm still in Forks." Marks listens in on the one sided conversation quietly. "Yeah, if we leave now we can be back to Seattle by 6…. But why aren't you handling this patient?"

"Zola? The patient is Zola!" Mark's heart jumps at the sound of his niece's name and he pushes back the covers to quickly put on his clothes. Lexie does the same, while trying to listen to Zola's symptoms Derek is providing over the phone.

"Okay, Doctor Shepherd… who's on call? Are they there? Yeah, let me talk to her…" Lexie remains silent until the phone is handed over to the on-call Doctor.

"Doctor Robbins, this is Doctor Scott, I'm on my way now and should be back in Seattle in 2 hours or less if we push the speed limit. How are her seizures? Is that dosage working? Okay, then let's stick with that and get her into Radiology for a high-def composite of her brain and spinal cord. Can you send the Scans to my phone and I'll review them on the way?" Lexie steps in front of a mirror and quickly finger-combs her hair it into a ponytail, while she watches Mark run around the room to get their stuff in the bags. "Yeah, call the surgical team in and prep an OR just in case. Okay….yeah…. I know…. try to keep them calm. See you soon." Hanging up, she looks over to a worried Mark standing by the bedroom door.

"Oh, Mark…. It's bad." She whispers.

"What happened, Lex?" he asks full of concern over his niece's health.

"They're not sure, Derek said that she had been pretty quiet all night and had acted like she didn't feel good, so they put her to bed. About an hour ago, they heard a crash coming from her room and they ran in to find that she had knocked the lamp off of her night stand because she was having a severe seizure. Once it stopped she was unresponsive and they rushed her to the hospital where the tests coming back are showing she may have developed meningitis from her shunt failing." Following him out to the car they quickly got in and pulled away from the Cullen home to head back to Seattle; a half an hour later, her phone buzzed as Zola's CT scan hit her email and Lexie began to review the pictures.

"Crap." She whispered and began dialing the hospital.

"What?" Mark asked, worried about Lexie's reaction to Zola's scans. But she didn't answer as the hospital picked up the phone.

"Doctor Robbins, This is Doctor Scott, I've reviewed Zola's Scans, and it looks like the shunt shifting may have been caused by a fall or injury…. It's pushed up into her brain and has caused an aneurism as well as an infection. Has an OR team been called in? We're making really good time, as long as we don't hit traffic, we should arrive in 45 minutes. Okay, keep me posted, if her stats change. See you soon." Hanging up the phone, Lexie looked over to Mark and he reached out his hand to take hers.

"I can't believe this is happening…..I had planned to use my gifts to help heal Zola's Spinia Bifida, so that a shunt and eventually the crutches would no longer be necessary. But she went away to camp this past week for kids with disabilities, so I never got a chance to touch her…now I've got to cut….into my niece's brain….oh God, I can't do this!" she choked out.

"Lex, Listen to me…. Derek and Meredith called you because you are the best Neurosurgeon resident our hospital's seen in years. You need to stop thinking of Zola as your niece and treat her like a patient, because here and now you're not Lexie Grey, her Aunt; you're Allison Scott the world class Doctor that's going to save that little girl's life." Bringing her hand to his lips, he softly kisses her knuckles. "They have faith in you…. I have faith in you." She gave him a soft smile and pulled her hand away from his to run her fingers through his hair. "Thank you." She whispered in gratitude from his encouragement and went back to reviewing Zola's scans.

Forty five minutes later, they arrived at the hospital and rushed into a nearby elevator to head to the attending's lounge so that she could throw on some scrubs for the surgery. Waiting nearby, Mark waited until she was done before pulling her into a hug one last time before they had to head up to Zola's room.

"Love you, Lex." He whispered into her ear, before pulling away. "Now go save our girl."

Moments later they exited the elevator and were immediately noticed by a couple of eager 3rd year Residents that began to give her Zola's stats as she read through her chart. Nodding her head in agreement that Zola needed surgery immediately, she told them to get her down to the OR and scrub in to assist.

"Doctor Scott, thank you so much for getting here so quickly." Derek said as he, Meredith and Arizona rushed out of Zola's room.

"It's no problem, Doctor Shepherd. I'm just happy that I was still in the area." She said trying to reassure her worried sister and brother-in-law. "I've reviewed Zola's current scans and I'm showing that an aneurism has formed from an injury to her shunt. I'm having her taken down to surgery now so that I can go in to clip it and then work on repositioning the shunt so it drains the excess fluid to relieve the pressure."

"I want to be there with my daughter." Derek said as he watched the residents prepare Zola.

"Doctor Shepherd, I understand your desire to be with your child, but you know the rules. Family is not allowed in the OR, even if they are Doctor's." she said.

"No… she's.." he began to argue, but her hand on his forearm stopped him.

"Derek, trust me. I'll take care of Zola as if she was my own niece." She said trying to convey in some way how important Zola was to her and she would do everything in her power to save a child she loved.

Meredith watched Doctor Scotts face as she interacted with Derek; it still amazed her on how much this young woman looked like her sister and in that moment she knew that Allison would do everything she could to save her daughter's life.

"Derek, we need to let Allison do her job; I trust her to take care of Zola." She said quietly, coming up next to him to wrap her arms around his waist. Looking down at his wife, he knew she was right.

"Okay…Okay… go. We'll wait here." He agreed and watched Allison move away to follow the residents pushing Zola's bed toward the elevator, turning to look behind her, Allison gave them a reassuring smile before looking over to Mark who was standing behind them. Once the elevator doors closed, she refocused on the task at hand and began giving directions to the residents once they arrived in the ER to scrub in.

Entering the OR after scrubbing in, Lexie made her way over to the little girl laying prone on the table and bent over to whisper into to Zola's ear. "Hey Zo Zo, Aunt Lexie's here to make it better. I love you baby girl." Seeing that everyone was now waiting for her, she walked to the head of the table and looked down at her niece then to the surgical team waiting for her directions.

"Since we all know who this little girl belongs to…. I'm going to borrow his catch phrase this morning and say, "It's a good day to save lives." Then she looks over to the scrub nurse and holds out her gloved hand to begin. "Ten blade, please."

Several hours later after scrubbing out, she made her way to the waiting room and pushed through the doors. Derek, Meredith and Mark all jumped up upon her arrival as waves of anxiety rolled off of them.

"She's going to be okay." Lexie began and everyone in the room exhaled as relief hit them. "I've clipped the aneurism and inserted a new shunt away from the damaged blood vessel, which is already relieving the pressure to her brain."

"What about infection? The preliminary tests were showing strains of Meningitis." Meredith asked.

"Yes, she does have symptoms of infection, but I'm going increase her dosage of antibiotics to fight it off and if all goes well she should start waking up in a few hours." She explained and then squeaked in surprise when Meredith pulled her into a hug and began to cry. Holding on to her sister, she whispered, "It's okay, Mere. I took care of her." Meredith's breathe caught in mid-sob because for a moment she sounded just like Lexie and it felt wonderful to finally hold her sister again. Coming up behind Meredith, Derek put his hand on Meredith's shoulder and she reluctantly moved away from hugging Allison and went into Derek's arms.

"Allison…you have no idea what this means to us. We can't thank you enough…." Derek voice rasped huskily as he fought back tears.

"Doctor Shepherd, you don't need to thank me." she said putting a comforting hand on his arm, "they'll be bringing her into ICU in a few minutes, why don't you both head down and meet her there."

Watching them leave, Lexie felt Mark come up behind and put his hand on her back.

"How did it really go, Lex?" he asked quietly sensing more went on in that OR then she let on.

"I had to use my powers, Mark." She whispered. "There was so much damage; she must have fallen….. and the infection….if another doctor had worked on her….. she would have died."

Facing her, he cupped her right cheek with his hand. "But she didn't, Lex. You saved her…. Just like you saved me." For a moment he looked like he was going to kiss her, but then she heard footsteps coming toward the room and pulled away from him just as an intern arrived, to let her know which room Zola now occupied.

"Mark… we can't do this here." She whispered, and watched as he smiled in understanding.

"Yeah, I know." he sighed, wishing he could pull her into an on-call room like the old days. "I'm going to go visit Zola, before my shift starts." He begins to walk toward the door but stops and turns around to face her. "Since you don't want anyone to know about us; how about you meet me at Derek's trailer which is now sitting next to the lake on his property? Looking at his hopeful expression, she chuckles before saying, "Sounds good, I'll see you later." He gives her a brilliant smile before leaving the room.

Later that afternoon with Derek's post-ops completed; Allison checked on Zola as her final patient and found that her niece was now doing better. Letting Doctor Hunt know that she had to go pick up her new passport and make travel arrangements for her return to England, she left the hospital.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Forks, a tracker wrinkles his nose at the scent of wolves lingering in the air as his partner waits by his side. He can tell by the faint scent that the Cullen family is no longer in the area, but then the wind shifts and he smiles as the intoxicating aroma of a young female immortal feels his senses. 'A new Cullen perhaps?' he thinks to himself since he hasn't encountered her scent before and the wolves left her alone while she was in the area. The only way to know for sure would be to track her down and find out her connection to the Cullen Family.

"Come on, Denz. It's time to go hunting." He says with a low chuckle and they quickly leave the area to head toward Seattle.


End file.
